The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will present Cheehyung Harrison Kim and his talk "Heroes and Toilers: Work and Life in Postwar North Korea, 1953-1961" on November 5.
DR. CHEEHYUNG HARRISON KIM offers an analysis of postwar North Korea that avoids the pitfalls of exoticism and exceptionalism to offer a new answer to the fundamental question of North Korea’s historical development.The online event starts at 5:00 pm on Zoom and is free and open to the public. Registration is required.
In search of national unity and bureaucratic order in the decade following the Korean War, the North Korean state turned to labor. Even more than coercion or violence, work was crucial to state control. Industrial labor was both mode of production and mode of governance, characterized by repetitive work, mass mobilization, labor heroes, and the insistence on convergence between living and working. At the same time, workers challenged and reconfigured state power to accommodate their circumstances—coming late to work, switching jobs, and fighting with bosses, as well as following approved paths to secure their livelihood, resolve conflict, and find happiness.