North Korea's name

[Sendo]

Why is that Kim Il-sung chose to name North Korea The Democratic People's Republic of Chosun when it was the nationalist, progressive state and the South Korea calls itself The Republic of the Great Han, a nation born out being an imperial lackey of the USA.

(For clarification, Korea is a stupid word, and is a rendering of the second great dynasty, Koryo. China has the same deal--from Qin. Han is a word for the Korean ethnic group. Western languages making titles for countries based on neither their modern translation a la Iceland nor on their local sound a la Cambodia, but out of outdated words is an annoying, separate topic.)

Admittedly, China and Japan have convenient names in the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese languages: "Zhongguo/Jungguk/Chuugoku" and "Riben/Ilbon/Nippon", that have survived every dynasty. (Both names are from Chinese ideographs)

But why in the world would Kim Il-sung, a Marxist-Leninist, choose to preserve the name of the last feudal dynasty of Korea??? It'd be like calling the Soviet Union Greater Romanovy. Or if England was Windsoria. I know that dynasties were not born out of nation-states, but rulers of kingdoms with constantly shifting borders. They come and go, lord over hodge-podges of ethnic groups, etc. It's odd that China has always been called "Middle Kingdom" from ancient times until socialism, and Japan has always been "Sun's Origin" from ancient times to capitalism, yet North Korea has made the name of its last dynasty the mantle for the modern nation-state.

Any theories why?

[Ismail]

Initially the DPRK portrayed itself as a "people's democracy." It didn't explicitly call itself socialist, and Protestant ministers among others were plentiful within the initial government (http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/strong-anna-louise/1949/in-north-korea/ch04.htm). It was probably done to present the government as a "mass-based" one which would respect non-communists.

The same thing happened in most of Eastern Europe (except to an extent Albania and Yugoslavia), where up until the 50's and 60's the governments there did not explicitly call themselves socialist and invoked nationalist imagery to showcase the "patriotic" nature of their governance, in order to "rebuild the nations" on a "progressive path," etc. Then the Communist Parties consolidated power and proclaimed their states socialist, although some "popular" imagery and movements continued to exist for nationalist reasons.

A good example of this is East Germany. Although it claimed socialism pretty much from the outset, it always had multiple political parties and portrayed itself as a government which all "patriotic" German people could support.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Popular_fronts (notice the Czechoslovak, Albanian, Yugoslav, Korean, East German, North Korean, Polish, etc. Fronts)

[revolution inaction]

Compleatly of topic but



(For clarification, Korea is a stupid word, and is a rendering of the second great dynasty, Koryo. China has the same deal--from Qin. Han is a word for the Korean ethnic group. Western languages making titles for countries based on neither their modern translation a la Iceland nor on their local sound a la Cambodia, but out of outdated words is an annoying, separate topic.)

But why in the world would Kim Il-sung, a Marxist-Leninist, choose to preserve the name of the last feudal dynasty of Korea??? It'd be like calling the Soviet Union Greater Romanovy. Or if England was Windsoria.

:D

[The Red Next Door]

Why is that Kim Il-sung chose to name North Korea The Democratic People's Republic of Chosun when it was the nationalist, progressive state and the South Korea calls itself The Republic of the Great Han, a nation born out being an imperial lackey of the USA.

(For clarification, Korea is a stupid word, and is a rendering of the second great dynasty, Koryo. China has the same deal--from Qin. Han is a word for the Korean ethnic group. Western languages making titles for countries based on neither their modern translation a la Iceland nor on their local sound a la Cambodia, but out of outdated words is an annoying, separate topic.)

Admittedly, China and Japan have convenient names in the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese languages: "Zhongguo/Jungguk/Chuugoku" and "Riben/Ilbon/Nippon", that have survived every dynasty. (Both names are from Chinese ideographs)

But why in the world would Kim Il-sung, a Marxist-Leninist, choose to preserve the name of the last feudal dynasty of Korea??? It'd be like calling the Soviet Union Greater Romanovy. Or if England was Windsoria. I know that dynasties were not born out of nation-states, but rulers of kingdoms with constantly shifting borders. They come and go, lord over hodge-podges of ethnic groups, etc. It's odd that China has always been called "Middle Kingdom" from ancient times until socialism, and Japan has always been "Sun's Origin" from ancient times to capitalism, yet North Korea has made the name of its last dynasty the mantle for the modern nation-state.

Any theories why?

Because Kim like to cherish traditional Korean culture and He probably wants model his rule after feudal.