Songun
| Songun | |
| Chosŏn'gŭl | 선군정치 |
|---|---|
| Hancha | |
| Revised Romanization | Seon(-)gun jeongchi |
| McCune–Reischauer | Sŏn'gun chŏngch'i |
Songun is the "military first" policy of North Korea, prioritizing the Korean People's Army in the affairs of state and allocation of resources. "Military first" as a principle guides political and economic life in North Korea, with "military-first politics" dominating the political system; "a line of military-first economic construction" acting as an economic system; and "military-first ideology" serving as the guiding ideology.
Songun elevates the Korean People's Army within North Korea as an organization and as a state function, granting it the primary position in the North Korean government and society. It guides domestic policy and international interactions. It is the framework for the government, designating the military as the "supreme repository of power". The North Korean government grants the Korean People's Army the highest economic and resource-allocation priority and positions it as the model for society to emulate.Songun is also the ideological concept behind a shift in policies since 1994 which emphasize the people's military over all other aspects of state and society.
The roots of Songun are traced to Kim Il-sung's activities during the anti-Japanese struggle of the 1930s. The songun era began in 1960 when a young Kim Jong-il, together with his father Kim Il-sung, visited the Seoul 105th Guards Armored Division HQ in Pyongyang on August 25. It was the first of Kim Jong-il's many visits to various Korean People's Army installations across North Korea. August 25 is now a national holiday, the Day of Songun.
Songun did not appear as an official government policy until after Kim Il-sung's death in 1994. In 1995, "military first" policies were introduced as "a revolutionary idea of attaching great importance to the army" and as "a politics emphasizing the perfect unity and the single-hearted unity of the party, army and the people, and the role of the army as the vanguards" in the wake of Kim Jong-il's first military unit visit for that year. This was a slight shift from the government's previous guiding policy, Kim Il-sung's juche, or self-reliance policy.
...
Wikipedia