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Chapter 10 - North Korea, Where I Lived

Socialist Mass Movements and the Spectrum of Competitive (Un) Consciousness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Ahlam Lee
By
HyunJung Jo
Ahlam Lee
Affiliation:
Xavier University
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Summary

Through this chapter, I explored life in a competitive arena during socialist mass movements in North Korea. Since liberation from Japanese rule at the end of World War II, North Korea has implemented mass movements to increase labor productivity, known as "Socialist Efforts toward Competition Movements." These movements have permeated various settings, including individuals, workplaces, enterprises, and cooperative farms. The Chollima movement, initiated in December 1956, symbolizes North Korea’s path toward economic development. It has promoted labor competition through mass movements such as "Speed War" and "Learning to Follow Hidden Heroes." Socialist mass movements influenced my daily life, fostering competition in schools and workplaces. Through the lens of my lived experiences, I share stories covering my life journey from North to South Korea, historical backgrounds of North Korea’s competition movements, a comparison analysis before and after the North Korean Famine in the mid-1990s, and characteristics of competition in North Korean society.

Keywords

North Koreacompetitionsocialist mass movementChollima movementNorth Korean famine
Type
Chapter
Information
Questioning Conventional Assumptions of Competition Dynamics , pp. 239 - 263
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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