From the North Korea Department of No Chance In Hell

[derby378]

First, a little piece of trivia. North Korea (or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, as the kids call it in Pyongyang) doesn't just have one political party. It actually has three.

There's the Workers' Party of Korea, of which Kim Jong Il is General Secretary and absolute leader - but there's also the Korean Social Democratic Party, which started out as a moderate social democratic party composed of blue-collar workers, merchants and entrepreneurs, and even some petty bourgeoisie back in 1945, but their statement on domestic policy has pretty much devolved into "Whatever Comrade Kim says, we're cool with it." They have a Chairman named Kim Young Dae who presides over the Central Committee of the Korean Social Democratic Party, but his duties appear to be limited to meeting foriegn delegates, rubberstamping directives from the Workers' Party of Korea, making pyramids out of state-manufactured pencils, and trying not to starve. In addition, there is also the Chondoist Chongu Party, a semi-religious political organization which had the audacity to win 16.5% of the seats in the Supreme People's Assembly in 1948, when North Korea was first constituted. This did not sit well with either Kim Il Sung or his Soviet allies, who saw the Chondoist Chongus as a haven for counterrevolutionaries, especially since they maintained ties with anticommunist Chondogyo adherents in Seoul - resulting in purges and loss of state subsidies for the Chondoist Chongu Party, until finally its most promient member, Kim Tarhyon (a former Deputy Chairman of the People's Assembly) was arrested by North Korean officials, tried in a kangaroo court, and never heard from again. Whatever's left of the Chondoist Chongu Party in North Korea is doing its best not to get purged yet again.

Which brings us to the "No Chance In Hell" segment of this post - a North Korean party in exile, calling itself the National Salvation Front for Democratic Reunification of Korea:

http://kukuk.v.wol.ne.jp/en/index-e.html

What can I say? These guys have guts.

[derby378]

1. Kick for the hell of it (n/t)