One of the oldest theoretical concepts about the earlier history of North Korea is the division of its politicians into four factions.
The Soviet faction was composed of Koreans who lived in the USSR, so the theory goes, the Yan’an faction of those from China, the internal faction of Communists of colonial Korea, and the partisan one: members of Kim Il Sung’s unit.
One of the oldest theoretical concepts about the earlier history of North Korea is the division of its politicians into four factions.
The Soviet faction was composed of Koreans who lived in the USSR, so the theory goes, the Yan’an faction of those from China, the internal faction of Communists of colonial Korea, and the partisan one: members of Kim Il Sung’s unit.
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Fyodor Tertitskiy is a leading researcher at Seoul’s Kookmin University. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Seoul National University and is the author of several books on North Korean history and military in English and Korean.