Dissertation

During my time in graduate school at Stanford University I studied Korean language and was interested in learning more about the relationship between North Korea and Japan. I was curious to learn more about the inner workings of the North Korean regime and how it exerted influence over its citizenry through the use of education. I read North Korean textbooks and Japanese textbooks used during the Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula (1910-1945) and used primary sources, conducted interviews, and collaborated with experts to research the subject and reach my conclusions. My primary thesis that the Kim regime would maintain power over North Korea proved correct. In addition, I explored how North Korea adopted strategies, including use of Japanese moral education to brainwash the populace into believing Kim Il Sung and his successors were more than political and military leaders, but religious/spiritual saviors. I explain how North Korean moral education holds the secrets to the Kim regimes ability to remain in power despite woeful, horrendous economic conditions and suffering faced by the North Korean people under a repressive regime. My conclusions still hold relevance in understanding North Korea today.

Checkout the review below:

Despite the recent media frenzy over North Korea, the inner workings of the North Korean regime remain largely unknown. It is undoubtedly a dictatorship, yet it does not merely rely on coercion or repression to control the populace. In this important and timely study, Ken shows how the regime has legitimized its rule and exerted influence over its citizenry through the use of education. Also by comparing the North Korean textbooks with Japanese textbooks used during the Japanese occupation of Korea (1910-1945), he presents the North Korean regime as similar to the militaristic, pre-World War II Japan. Ken’s study concludes that North Korea’s moral education, adopted from Japan, holds the secrets to the Kim regime’s ability to remain in power despite failing economic conditions and long-standing isolation from the international community. One can also draw from this study relevant policy implications for the United States as it has entered into negotiations with North Korea on nuclear and missile programs.  

– Professor Gi-Wook Shin, William J. Professor of Contemporary Korea, Professor of Sociology, and Director of the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University.


See a snippet of my book below! You can purchase an electronic copy of the book here and a paper version here.

The dissertation can also be physically located at Stanford’s Hoover Archives Library under Ken Reiman Papers. Enjoy!