ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with elite issues from the mid-1950s to late 1960s, during which the power struggles of the previous period continued. The power struggle that had been continuous in the oligarchic power structure culminated in the ‘August Factional Incident’ of 1956, when the guerrilla faction successfully defeated the others. With this faction dominating the political system, Kim Il Sung was able to establish his own, albeit limited, personal rule. The political purge of the mid-1950s within the party spread throughout society through the state’s inspections of most social members, also weeding out anti-Kim elements in the military in the late 1950s. By the early 1960s, North Korea became a ‘guerrilla state’ in which Kim Il Sung and his former guerrillas dominated the regime’s policy-making. This chapter explains the August Factional Incident and its social impact, and the main elite figures and their roles in the post-August Factional Incident under Kim Il Sung’s limited personal power.
