A/HRC/25/CRP.1 DPRK’s special forces attempted to enter the Blue House in Seoul in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate President Park Chung-hee. Nevertheless, in 1972, following secret negotiations between Kim Il-sung’s brother Kim Yong-ju and the ROK’s chief intelligence officer Yi Hu-rak, the ROK and DPRK released a joint statement on achieving reunification peacefully without the use of military force or external forces. Despite these developments, the DPRK sponsored a number of terrorist acts against civilian targets of the ROK. These included: the 1983 attempted assassination of the ROK President Chun Doo-hwan in Yangon through a bombing that killed 21 people including four Myanmar nationals; the 1986 Gimpo Airport bombing that killed five people; and the 1987 Korean Airlines bombing that killed 115 people. These actions contributed to the increasing international isolation of the DPRK. 109. The wounds inflicted by the Korean War were deep and are still felt. The Commission acknowledges the suffering that has occurred on both sides of the border. D. Imposition of the Supreme Leader (suryong) system 110. While Confucian principles have remained enmeshed in Korean culture, in the North they were in many ways instrumentalized by Kim Il-sung in the effort to consolidate his authority and that of the Workers’ Party of Korea under his control. The relationship between sovereign and subject that is enunciated as a mutually binding one under traditional Confucian precepts has been stretched to one of absolute obedience to the leader as articulated in the suryong, or Supreme Leader, system42 established by Kim Il-sung and carried on under Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un. The “Mandate of Heaven”, a Confucian principle, is the right to rule granted to ancient Korean rulers by the gods. This mandate conveyed obligations on rulers to rule justly and fairly and for the benefit of all the people. The Suryong system positioned Kim Il-sung (and his heir apparent) as unchallenged rulers due to their proclaimed wisdom and benevolence under which the general population would live in a prosperous and righteous society. In this way, the suryong system has facilitated the unchecked violation of human rights in the DPRK. 111. In 1949, Kim Il-sung secured his designation as Suryong, Supreme Leader. In order to eliminate any opposition to his rule, he established a system of governance built on an elaborate guiding ideology, a single mass party led by a single person, a centrally-planned economy, a monopoly on the means of communication, and a system of security that employed violence and a political police. As a matter of priority, the DPRK built up its state security apparatus. The Ministry of Internal Affairs, modelled on the Soviet security system, with 4,000 to 5,000 headquarters staff, was comprised of 12,000 regular police, 3,000 political police, and 45,000 employees within the Security Guard units, Border Constabulary and Railroad Brigade. The Political Security Bureau within the Ministry was responsible for ensuring loyalty to the regime by uncovering and stopping resistance to authority and subversive activities. The Political Security Bureau also provided operational guidance to the Political Defence Bureau within the Ministry of Defence, which carried out the same functions within the military. The security system also employed an informant network of 400,000 people, an estimated 5 per cent of the population at that time.43 42 43 The Suryong (supreme leader) system embeds all powers of the state, party and military under one singular leader. Ken E. Gause, “Coercion, Control, Surveillance and Punishment: An Examination of the North Korean Police State”, The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, 2012, pp. 88-91. (Exhibit W07). Also available from http://www.hrnk.org/uploads/pdfs/HRNK_Ken-Gause_Web.pdf. 27