조선인민군 군인의 형성과 근대적 규율: 인민군의 교육·내무생활·기율규정을 중심으로

Abstract

The North Korean political elite conscribed the youth to establish an army immediately after liberation. The youth were able to join the army after an examination of their physical health and political ideology. Physical health and being pro-North Korean Worker’s Party were prerequisites for becoming a soldier. These young soldiers were transformed into “docile bodies” through political and military education. They were equipped with communist political ideology. They lived in a “modern” time and space by following a daily timetable and residing in comparted units. As the Korean People’s Army(KPA) made hierarchy among soldiers living and cooperating in base, it controlled their behavior. The young soldiers came to have “docile bodies” and patriotic masculinity through modern discipline operated in the KPA. Also, the KPA divided soldiers into model and dishonorable soldiers through reward and punishment. As the KPA rewarded model soldiers with promotion and honor, it placed soldiers into a military hierarchy. Similarly, the KPA disciplined them to respect the army’s regulation and rule. By doing so, these young North Korean soldiers were transformed into heroic warriors for “the nation and the people.”