1950년대 북한 사회주의 건설과 민족문화유산 계승 문제

Socialist Construction and National Culture Inheritance: North Korea in the 1950s

한국전쟁 후 북한은 국가를 정비하고 전후복구사업을 추진하기 위하여 내적 통합과 내부 자원의 동원을 필요로 하였다. 이에 따라 민족문화유산은 이념과 실용의 양측면에서 더욱 중요시되었다. 1955년 김일성은 ‘주체’ 확립 방침을 제시하였고, 민족문화의 전통은 ‘주체’의 일부분을 구성하였다. 1956년 사회주의 건설 방침이 확립된 이후 민족문화유산 계승사업은 사회주의 건설 사업의 일부로서 진행되었다. 북한은 특히 실학사상 속에서 선진적·개혁적 면모를 발견하여, 사회주의 개조의 이념과 동력을 이끌어냈다. 민족문화유산은 사회경제적 자원으로서 북한 사회주의 건설에 직접 활용·적용되고 주민생활과 밀접하게 연결되었다. 전통을 계승하여 현 시대에 구현하고 인민에게 향유하도록 하는 것은 ‘주체’의 확립인 동시에 인민주권적 지향의 실천이었다. 북한 사회주의가 민족문화전통과의 깊은 관련 속에서 건설된 것은, 북한 체제 내 민족주의적 성격이 뿌리내린 하나의 요인이었다.

The policy of inheritance and development of national cultural heritage has been a consistent policy of North Korea after the Liberation. In the early 1950s, North Korea needed internal integration and mobilization of internal resources in order to reorganize the Workers’ Party and the state system and to carry out post war reconstruction projects. Accordingly, the importance of national cultural heritage was further emphasized in terms of both ideology and practical use. In 1955, Kim Il-sung directed the establishment of ‘Juche’ based on the National Cultural Tradition and the Anti-Japanese Revolutionary Tradition. After the policy of socialist construction was fixed at the 3rd Congress of the Workers’Party of Korea in 1956, the project to inherit national cultural heritage was carried out with the goal of socialist construction. In particular, the advanced and reforming aspects were rediscovered in Silhak ideology. North Korea justified its radical socialization path through the ideology of Silhak. On the other hand, national cultural heritage in each sector, such as traditional science, architecture, weaponry, medicine, crafts, musical instruments, and clothing, was directly utilized and applied to the construction of socialism in North Korea as socio-economic resources, and it was closely related to the lives of the residents. Inheriting the tradition and realizing it in the present era was the realization of Juche, and it contained the orientation of the people's sovereignty in the sense that the people enjoy the nation’s treasures. Through the inheritance of national cultural heritage, North Korea’s socialist construction was ideologically reversed and utilized practically. In this way, North Korean socialism and national cultural traditions were closely related, and thus the nationalistic character took root in the North Korean socialist system.(University of North Korean Studies)