1st Central Committee of the Workers' Party of North Korea

The 1st Central Committee of the Workers' Party of North Korea was elected by the 1st Congress on 30 August 1946 through the merger of the Communist Party of North Korea and the New People's Party of Korea,[1] and remained in session until the election of the 2nd Central Committee on 30 March 1948.[2] In between party congresses and specially convened conferences the Central Committee is the highest decision-making institution in the party and North Korea.[3] The Central Committee is not a permanent institution and delegates day-to-day work to elected bodies, such as the Political Committee, the Standing Committee and the Organisation Committee (membership not disclosed) in the case of the 1st Central Committee.[4][5] It convenes meetings, known as "Plenary Session of the [term] Central Committee", to discuss major policies.[6] A plenary session can be attended by non-members.[6] These meetings are known as "Enlarged Plenary Session".[6] The party rules approved at the 1st Congress stipulated that the Central Committee needed to convene for a plenary session every third month.[7] In total the 1st Central Committee convened for twelve plenary sessions.[6] Of those twelve, eighth plenary sessions were convened in 1947.[7]

1st Central Committee
Emblem of the Workers' Party of North Korea
30 August 1946 – 30 March 1948 (1 year, 213 days)
Overview
Decision making body	Central Committee of the Workers' Party of North Korea
Election	1st Congress (1946)
Full members	43
Officers of the Central Committee
Chairman	Kim Tu-bong
Vice Chairmen	Kim Il-sung Chu Yong-ha
Political Committee	5 members
Standing Committee	13 members

Forty-three members were elected to the 1st Central Committee, of which thirty-one were re-elected at the 2nd Congress.[8] Its members convened for the 1st Plenary Session on 31 August 1946, and elected the 1st Organisation Committee, 1st Standing Committee and its Political Committee, and elected the WPNK Chairman and two vice chairs.[9] Kim Tu-bong was elected as Chairman while Kim Il-sung and Chu Yong-ha were elected vice chairmen.[9] Despite their formal roles, real powers remained in Kim Il-sung's hands and Kim Tu-bong played a more ceremonial role due to his unwillingness to partake in the day-to-day management of party affairs.[9] In the 1st Plenary Session's aftermath the party began establishing state structures known as provisional people's committees throughout the country, and in 1947 national elections to the People's Assembly were organised.[10] At its first plenary session, the assembly elected a Presidium and elected Kim Tu-bong as its chairman, and appointed the People's Committee (the government) and elected Kim Il-sung as its chairman.[11] Of 22 government members, 16 were members of the WPNK.[11]

A feature of North Korean politics was its factionalism.[12] Four loosely defined factions had taken shape by this time; Kim Il-sung's partisans, domestic communists, the Yanan group and the Soviet Koreans.[note 1][12] The partisans, comprised soldiers who had fought Japanese rule with Kim Il-sung, lacked both theoretical and organisational experience to take leading party offices.[12] They were therefore poorly represented in the 1st Central Committee.[12] The domestic faction, composed of indigenous communists and leading members of the Workers' Party of South Korea, were underrepresented due to their underground activities in South Korea.[12] While the Yanan faction, Korean revolutionaries based in China, had most representation on the committee.[12] The Soviet Koreans, composed of Koreans who were either Soviet-born or lived there during Japanese rule, also had significant representation.[12] The conflict between these factions would intensify over the years, with Soviet Korean Yu Song-gol stating that he "as early as 1947 [...] overhead how former partisans not only mentioned the [Yanans] and 'Soviets' with a great deal of animosity but also expressed the desire to be rid of them in due course."[14] These factional conflicts were rarely based on policy differences, but rather personal interests and the struggle for power.[15] Scholar Andrey Lankov notes that "at least 28 members" of the 1st Central Committee "became victims of Kim Il-sung's purges. The real number was probably even higher since in many cases purges were not made public."[12]

A conflict between Kim Il-sung's partisan faction and Pak Hon-yong's domestic faction had been brewing since the North Korean Branch Bureau's formation in October 1945.[15] The leading domestic communist in the North O Ki-sop was accused of making "leftist and rightist errors" at the 3rd Enlarged Plenary Session.[16] Vice Chairman Chu Yong-ha further elaborated on the criticism, and claimed that "O had attempted to apply labour union principles under capitalism to the socialist setting of North Korea, thereby deliberately inciting unthinking workers."[16] O Ki-sop defended himself by citing the works of Vladimir Lenin, and claimed that "[if I am such] a pain in the neck then why not just pin the label of Trotskyite on [me]?"[17] While Pak Il-u supposedly rose in his defence and called for a committee to study the Lenin work in question, Kim Il-sung stated that no such committee was necessary due to O Ki-sop's past mistakes.[17] The criticism of O Ki-sop and the attacks on the indigenous North Korean communist movement, that had remained active in Korea during Japanese colonialism, was supported by the partisans, Soviet Koreans and the Yanans.[17]