A Study of Methodology on North Korean Studies

Abstract

This article aims to review methodology on North Korean Studies, especially totalitarian model approach, immanent approach, everyday life approach. The characteristics of communist totalitarianism commonly emphasized during the 1950s are certainly valid and important descriptions so far as they go, at least of Stanlins Russia and of other oppressive communist systems, for example, North Korea under Kim Il-sung. North Korea under Kim Il-sung is a living example of totalitarian society. But totalitarian model approach is too static, narrow and substructurally insensitive to evolutionary changes in totalitarianism. Immanent approach had introduced as a new approach of North Korean studies in 1988. Immanent approach that presented in South Korea has made a false representation of its meanings and subject matters in terms of approach. This article is to emphasize a study on everyday life as a new perspective of North Korean studies. The everyday life approach is based on the methodological self-reflection on the tendency of prevailing North Korean studies, which placed excessive emphasis on the leadership, ideology, and political system of North Korea