Gapsan Incident 1967 and its impact on the establishment of an ideological regime in North Korea

Abstract

The states internal crises are more dangerous on internal politics and vital interests of the state than other crises. These crises appear when a group of senior state officials, who control important positions in governance, challenge the policy of the state and its ruler. This negatively affect the security of the state and its internal and external interests. North Korea was known for its authoritarian policy and its interest in absolute submission to the North Korean president and his policy of focusing on heavy industrialization since the end of the Korean War in 1950-1953, with the aim of making his country an advanced military state with a people subject to it to the point of slavery, under the pretext of getting out of Soviet control, which was the reason for the spread of communism in North Korea. After 1953 the Soviet Union began moving towards reform and abandoning the Stalinist policy of submission to the ruler. This was rejected by the Korean government, which relied on the policy of “venerating the leader” since 1949, which led to the emergence of opponents to that policy since the forties of the twentieth century and culminated in the crisis of August 1956. Despite the purge of those who called for reform, the leaders continued to confront that policy until the Gapsan Incident in 1967, whose goals and effects on the North Korean regime will be explained.