The August faction incident, known in North Korean histography as the Second Arduous March, was an unsuccessful attempt to remove Kim Il Sung, the chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and the premier of North Korea, from power by leading North Korean figures from the Soviet faction and the Yan'an faction, with support from China and the Soviet Union, at the second plenary session of the 3rd WPK Central Committee in 1956. The attempt to remove Kim failed and the participants were arrested and later executed. Through this political struggle, Kim quashed all opposition to him within the party leadership.
The leaders of the coup included the Vice Premier of the Cabinet Ch'oe Ch'angik, the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly Kim Tu-bong, the Minister of Construction Kim Sung-hwa, the Minister of Commerce Yun Gong-chin, and the Chairman of the General Federation of Trade Unions Suh Hwi, all of whom were members of the reformist faction within the WPK. They opposed Kim Il Sung's cult of personality and believed that his economic policies were causing serious problems. The plot was dismantled in just half a day and the plotters were purged. Afterwards, the plotters convinced China and the Soviet Union to send a joint delegation headed by Peng Dehuai and Anastas Mikoyan to force Kim to revert his purge. Kim temporarily relented, convincing China and the Soviet Union to not remove him from power, but he resumed his purges soon afterwards,
Regarded by historians as one of the most far-reaching events in North Korea, Kim Il Sung's power was not only not challenged, but was gradually consolidated due to the plot. It also indirectly laid the foundation for the Kim family's long-term rule over North Korea and affected the country's relations with China and the Soviet Union.
Background
Factionalism in the Workers' Party of Korea
Since the founding of North Korea in 1948, the ruling party of the country has been the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK). However, since the party was formed by the merger of many different factions of communist and non-communist parties, there emerged different factions in the WPK. Among them included the Soviet faction of those hailing from the Soviet Union, the Yan'an faction which had close ties with the Chinese Communist Party, the domestic faction composed of former members of the Workers' Party of South Korea, and the guerrilla faction whose members fought against the colonial government during the Japanese rule of Korea. The guerrilla faction and the Yan'an faction were considered to have made the greatest contributions during the resistance against Japan. With the support of the Soviet Union, Kim Il Sung, the leader of the guerrilla faction, became North Korea's supreme leader. The Yan'an faction secured 6 out of 13 seats in the Politburo of the Workers' Party of Korea. These two factions thus became the most influential factions in the party at that time.
In 1948, the Soviet Red Army withdrew from the Korean Peninsula, meaning that Kim Il Sung lost Soviet military support. To prevent other factions from taking the opportunity to expand their power, he purged the leaders of various factions during the Korean War, which he launched in 1950. In December 1950, he first dismissed Mu Chong, the leader of the Yan'an faction and vice minister of the National Defense Department and commander of the artillery of the Korean People's Army, for failing to defend Pyongyang. In 1951, he dismissed Ho Ka-i, the leader of the Soviet faction, from all his posts on charges of failing to repair the reservoir and obstructing the expansion of the party.
During this time, there was increasing conflict between Kim Il Sung and Pak Hon-yong, the leader of the domestic faction. Pak was originally a core figure of the Communist Party of Korea and was highly respected by the Soviet Union. He later joined the Workers' Party and was highly regarded within the party. On the other hand, his position on many policies was contrary to that of Kim Il Sung. The two had different views on how to launch an offensive against South Korea and whether to negotiate peace during the war. In November 1952, Pak Hon-yong delivered a speech commemorating the 35th anniversary of the October Revolution. When mentioning the Korean independence movement, he repeatedly emphasized the leading position of the Korean Communist Party and did not mention Kim Il Sung's name. Considering the lack of foreign support for the domestic faction and their dissatisfaction with Pak, Kim Il Sung arrested him in 1953 on the grounds that he was a spy for the United States. In July 1953, the Korean War ended, and Kim Il Sung continued his purge. Ten people, including Yi Sung-yop and Kwon Oh-jik, were executed on the same day for espionage, leading the domestic faction's power to plummet.
Afterwards, Kim Il Sung turned his attention to Pak Il-u, a representative of the Yan'an faction who held military power. During the Korean War, Pak was the Minister of Internal Affairs and Deputy Political Commissar of the Joint Command, and was the liaison between the North Korean government and Beijing. Towards the end of the war, Kim Il Sung informed Beijing that Pak would be recalled and replaced by his confidant Choe Yong-gon. However, although Pak had been relieved of his post of liaison with Beijing, he still maintained contact with the Chinese government, which displeased Kim Il Sung. At the plenary session of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea held in April 1955, Kim Il Sung criticized Pak Il-u by name for "posing as a representative from China", forming cliques and attempting to split the party, and placed him under house arrest. In December 1956, he was expelled from the Central Committee and his party membership was revoked.
The Soviet faction then became the target of the attack. According to official Soviet archives, Kim Il Sung had no hostility toward the Soviet faction after eliminating Ho Ka-i. However, with Pak Chang-ok's large-scale promotion of Soviet faction cadres in 1955, he had objections to Kim's handling of Ho Ka-i, which increased Kim Il Sung's suspicion. In order to attack Pak Chang-ok, Kim Il Sung misled Pak's confidant, Park Yong-bin, the Minister of Propaganda of the WPK Central Committee, to explain the "historical role of the masses" when publishing periodicals. Coincidentally, Song Dal-beom, the editor of the political propaganda magazine New Joseon, refused to publish the novel by Han Sorya, a writer who was deeply loved by Kim Il Sung. In this way, Kim Il Sung found more reasons to criticize Park. At the subsequent Central Committee plenary session, Kim dismissed Park Yong-bin from his post for his erroneous tendencies in literary work and his attack on proletarian literature. As for Pak Chang-ok, considering his active role in the previous struggle against Pak Hon-yong, he was only expelled from the Political Committee, but retained his position as Vice Prime Minister. Nevertheless, the main Soviet faction cadres had all been expelled from the core of power.
After a series of purges, the Yan'an faction, the Soviet faction and the domestic faction within the Workers' Party were all severely weakened, while the guerrilla faction led by Kim Il Sung rose to prominence. However, this also led to fear among Yan'an and Soviet faction officials such as Kim Tu-bong, Ch'oe Ch'angik and Pak Chang-ok, who planned to launch a counterattack.
The Rise of Khrushchev and De-Stalinization
Although he became North Korea's supreme leader, Kim Il Sung's power was limited due to the factions in the government. To expand his power, Kim Il Sung imitated Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and implemented a cult of personality to cement his prestige in the party and the country. In the early days of the founding of the country, Kim Il Sung required painters and writers to depict him as a hero who resisted the Japanese colonial government. In addition, he was described by the propaganda department as a leader who cared for the people like a father. After the Korean War, he was portrayed as a national hero who led the country to victory and was given the title of "the invincible iron commander". After that, portraits, movies, music and posters about praising Kim Il Sung spread throughout the country.
In 1953, Stalin died, and after a series of power struggles, Nikita Khrushchev emerged as the leader of the Soviet Union. Once his power was consolidated, Khrushchev implemented a series of measures. Politically, he adopted a policy of de-Stalinization suspending Stalin's cult of personality, and then eased the oppressive Soviet rule over its satellite states, adopting a more conciliatory approach. He also allowed for partial liberalization of the arts. Economically, he changed the Soviet government's reliance on heavy industry and intensive agriculture, allowing for limited marketization. These policies subsequently triggered a chain reaction in neighboring socialist countries, including the 1956 Poznań protests, Bulgaria's economic reforms, and China's Hundred Flowers Campaign. Throughout the Soviet Bloc domestic Communist parties inaugurated campaigns against personality cults, and the general secretaries who modelled themselves after Stalin were deposed throughout Eastern Europe.
As a supporter of Stalin, Kim Il Sung was uneasy about Khrushchev's remarks and policies. To eliminate the impact of Khrushchev's remarks, the Workers' Party's official newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, removed the terms "cult of personality" and "collective leadership" from his speech. At the same time, Kim Il Sung sent secret letters to party members, emphasizing that "the errors exposed by the 20th Congress of the CPSU do not occupy any place in the activities of the Workers' Party". On the other hand, in order to counter de-Stalinization, Kim Il Sung put forward the Juche ideology, which pointed out that the policies and guidelines implemented in North Korea must take into account the actual situation in the country and should not follow foreign countries in everything. Although Kim Il Sung tried his best to prevent Khrushchev's ideas from entering North Korea, the members of the Workers' Party's reformist faction were still able to learn about all of this through Soviet newspapers sold in Pyongyang, and they hoped that Kim Il Sung would change his mind.
However, Khrushchev's reforms did not receive a positive response from Kim Il Sung: North Korea continued to implement highly collectivized agriculture and rely on heavy industry to develop its economy, and there was no sign of change in Kim Il Sung's cult of personality and repressive rule. On 19 March 1956, Kim Il Sung received Khrushchev's speech report On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences and told the Soviet Embassy that he would earnestly implement it in the actual work of the Party. However, Kim Il Sung instead strongly criticized Pak Hon-yong for engaging in a cult of personality at the Central Committee plenary session the following day. At the 3rd Congress of the Workers' Party from 23 to 28 April 1956, North Korean Korean ambassador to the Soviet Union Lee Sang-jo twice sent notes to the congress's presidium, demanding that the issue of cult of personality be discussed. As all the speeches read in the congress were censored by Central Committee departments loyal to Kim Il Sung, this attempt failed. Kim Il Sung did not discuss the issues of personality cult and economic line, but instead praised North Korea's economic achievements and criticized the "sectarian activities that split the party" of the domestic faction. This led to dissatisfaction among reformist members, and Lee Sang-jo lamented that the Korean Revolution Museum had become "a museum of Kim Il Sung's personal career". When meeting with the Soviet ambassador, Vice Premier Pak Chang-ok pointed out that Kim Il Sung not only failed to properly handle the contradictions between factions, but also used nepotism, which exacerbated the cult of personality within the party. Under various dissatisfactions with Kim Il Sung, the reformists finally came up with the idea of launching a coup.
Planning
During the Korean War, North Korea was severely damaged and needed a significant amount of funds for reconstruction and economic development. To this end, Kim Il Sung visited several socialist countries, including the Soviet Union, Poland and East Germany, from 1 June to 19 July 1956, in order to get more economic aid. During this period, reformist officials who were increasingly dissatisfied with Kim Il Sung, such as Kim Tu-bong, Ch'oe Ch'angik, Pak Chang-ok, Suh Hwi and Yun Gong-chin, took the opportunity to meet at the Soviet Embassy in Pyongyang to discuss the feasibility and methods of removing Kim Il Sung. In the end, they, who held seats on the Central Committee, decided to impeach Kim Il Sung at the Central Committee plenary session held from 2 to 4 August. According to the Rules of the Workers' Party of Korea, members of the Central Committee could elect the chairman, so they theoretically also had the right to impeach him. This would have required 36 out of 71 members of the Central Committee voting to remove him. The conspirators also aimed to expel some of Kim's supporters from the Central Committee, which led Kim to respond by sharing responsibility for their alleged misdeeds, effectively protecting them.