Editing History of North Korea (section)

== Post-war redevelopment (1953–1970s) ==
=== Internal politics ===
[[File:庆祝朝鲜“八一五”解放十周年大会.jpg|thumb|left|From left to right: [[Pak Chang-ok]], [[Li Jishen]], [[Kim Tu-bong]], [[Zhu De]], [[Kim Il Sung]], [[Averky Aristov]], [[Pak Chŏng Ae]] and [[Choe Yong-gon (army commander)|Choe Yong-gon]] in 1955]]
Kim began gradually consolidating his power. Up to this time, North Korean politics were represented by four factions: the [[Yan'an]] faction, made up of returnees from China; the "Soviet Koreans" who were ethnic Koreans from the USSR; native Korean communists led by [[Pak Hon-yong]]; and Kim's Kapsan group who had fought guerrilla actions against Japan in the 1930s.<ref name="auto2">{{cite book| title = The Making of Modern Korea | last = Buzo | first = Adrian | year = 2002| publisher = Routledge|  location = London | isbn = 978-0-415-23749-9 |page=95}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = Korea since 1850 | last1 = Lone |  first1 = Stewart| last2 = McCormack | first2 = Gavan | author-link2 = Gavan McCormack | publisher = Longman Cheshire | location = Melbourne | year = 1993 | page=177 }}</ref>

[[Pak Hon-yong]], party vice chairman and Foreign Minister of the DPRK, was blamed for the failure of the southern population to support North Korea during the war, was dismissed from his positions in 1953, and was executed after a show trial in 1955.<ref>Dae-Sook Suh, ''Kim Il Sung: The North Korean Leader'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988), 133–136.</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Hoare|first=James|title=Pak Heon-yeong|url=https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/resource/modern-korean-history-portal/pak-heon-yeong|work=Modern Korean History Portal|publisher=Woodrow Wilson Center|access-date=5 March 2014}}</ref>

The Party Congress in 1956 indicated the transformation that the party had undergone. Most members of other factions had lost their positions of influence. More than half the delegates had joined after 1950, most were under 40 years old, and most had limited formal education.<ref name="auto2"/>

In February 1956, Soviet leader [[Nikita Khrushchev]] made a sweeping denunciation of Stalin, which sent shock waves throughout the Communist world. Encouraged by this, members of the party leadership in North Korea began to criticize Kim's dictatorial leadership, personality cult, and Stalinist economic policies. Kim consequently purged them in the [[August Faction Incident]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Person|first=James|title="We Need Help from Outside": The North Korean Opposition Movement of 1956|journal=Cold War International History Project Working Paper|date=August 2006|issue=52|url=http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/WP52.pdf|access-date=5 March 2014|archive-date=5 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170705153656/https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/WP52.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| title = The Making of Modern Korea | last = Buzo | first = Adrian | year = 2002| publisher = Routledge|  location = London | isbn = 978-0-415-23749-9 |pages=95–96}}</ref> By 1960, 70 per cent of the members of the 1956 Central Committee were no longer in politics.<ref>{{cite book| title = The Making of Modern Korea | last = Buzo | first = Adrian | year = 2002| publisher = Routledge|  location = London | isbn = 978-0-415-23749-9 |page=96}}</ref>

Kim Il Sung had initially been criticized by the Soviets during a previous 1955 visit to Moscow for practicing Stalinism and a cult of personality, which was already growing enormous. The Korean ambassador to the USSR, Li Sangjo, a member of the Yan'an faction, reported that it had become a criminal offense to so much as write on Kim's picture in a newspaper and that he had been elevated to the status of Marx, Lenin, Mao, and Stalin in the communist pantheon. He also charged Kim with rewriting history to appear as if his guerrilla faction had single-handedly liberated Korea from the Japanese, completely ignoring the assistance of the Chinese People's Volunteers. In addition, Li stated that in the process of agricultural collectivization, grain was being forcibly confiscated from the peasants, leading to "at least 300 suicides" and that Kim made nearly all major policy decisions and appointments himself. Li reported that over 30,000 people were in prison for completely unjust and arbitrary reasons as trivial as not printing Kim Il Sung's portrait on sufficient quality paper or using newspapers with his picture to wrap parcels. Grain confiscation and tax collection were also conducted forcibly with violence, beatings, and imprisonment.<ref>{{cite web|last=Ri|first=Sang-jo|title=Letter from Ri Sang-jo to the Central Committee of the Korean Workers Party|url=https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/114152|publisher=Woodrow Wilson Center|access-date=5 March 2014}}</ref>

In late 1968, known military opponents of North Korea's ''[[Juche]]'' (or self-reliance) ideology such as Kim Chang-bong (minister of National Security), Huh Bong-hak (chief of the Division for Southern Intelligence) and Lee Young-ho (commander in chief of the DPRK Navy) were purged as anti-party/counter-revolutionary elements, despite their credentials as anti-Japanese guerrilla fighters in the past.<ref name="North Korean Purges - Kim Il-sung">{{cite web |last=Pike |first=John |title=North Korean Purges |url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/dprk/leadership-purges.htm}}</ref>

Kim's personality cult was modeled on Stalinism and his regime originally acknowledged Stalin as the supreme leader. After Stalin's death in 1953, however, Kim was described as the "Great Leader" or "Suryong". As his personality cult grew, the doctrine of ''Juche'' began to displace Marxism–Leninism. At the same time the cult extended beyond Kim himself to include his family in a revolutionary blood line.<ref>{{cite book | title = Korea since 1850 | last1 = Lone |  first1 = Stewart| last2 = McCormack | first2 = Gavan | author-link2 = Gavan McCormack | publisher = Longman Cheshire | location = Melbourne | year = 1993 | pages=179–180 }}</ref>
In 1972, to celebrate [[Kim Il Sung's birthday]], the [[Mansu Hill Grand Monument]] was unveiled, including a 22-meter bronze statue of him.<ref>{{Cite book| last1= Oberdorfer| first1=Don| last2=Carlin| first2=Robert | title=The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History | publisher = Basic Books| year = 2014 | page = 18 | isbn = 9780465031238}}</ref>

=== International relations ===
[[File:Zhou Enlai and Kim Il Sung in Beijing.jpg|thumb|right|[[Kim Il Sung]] and [[Zhou Enlai]] tour Beijing in 1958]]
Like Mao in China, Kim Il Sung refused to accept Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin and continued to model his regime on Stalinist norms.<ref>{{cite book| title = The Making of Modern Korea | last = Buzo | first = Adrian | year = 2002| publisher = Routledge|  location = London | isbn = 978-0-415-23749-9 |pages=95–97}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| title = Korea's Twentieth-Century Odyssey | url = https://archive.org/details/koreastwentieth00robi | url-access = registration | last = Robinson | first = Michael E | year = 2007 | publisher = University of Hawaii Press |  location = Honolulu | isbn = 978-0-8248-3174-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/koreastwentieth00robi/page/152 152]}}</ref> At the same time, he increasingly stressed Korean independence, as embodied in the concept of ''Juche''.<ref>{{cite book| title = The Making of Modern Korea | last = Buzo | first = Adrian | year = 2002| publisher = Routledge|  location = London | isbn = 978-0-415-23749-9 |pages=95, 122}}</ref> Kim told [[Alexei Kosygin]] in 1965 that he was not anyone's puppet and "We{{nbsp}}... implement the purest Marxism and condemn as false both the Chinese admixtures and the errors of the CPSU".<ref>{{cite journal|author1-link=Sergey Radchenko|last=Radchenko|first=Sergey|title=The Soviet Union and the North Korean Seizure of the USS Pueblo: Evidence from Russian Archives|journal=Cold War International History Project Working Paper|issue=47|page=8|url=http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/CWIHP_WP_47.pdf|access-date=2014-03-05|archive-date=2018-08-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180817225006/https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/CWIHP_WP_47.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Relations with China had worsened during the war. [[Mao Zedong]] criticized Kim for having started the whole "idiotic war" and for being an incompetent military commander who should have been removed from power. PLA commander [[Peng Dehuai]] was equally contemptuous of Kim's skills at waging war.<ref>{{cite book | last = Jager | first = Sheila Miyoshi | title = Brothers at War – The Unending Conflict in Korea | year = 2013 | publisher = Profile Books | location = London | isbn = 978-1-84668-067-0|pages=362–363}}</ref>

By some analysis, Kim Il Sung remained in power partially because the Soviets turned their attention to the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]] that fall.<ref>{{cite book | last = Jager | first = Sheila Miyoshi | title = Brothers at War – The Unending Conflict in Korea | year = 2013 | publisher = Profile Books | location = London | isbn = 978-1-84668-067-0|pages=363–364}}</ref> The Soviets and Chinese were unable to stop the inevitable purge of Kim's domestic opponents or his move towards a one-man Stalinist autocracy and relations with both countries deteriorated in the former's case because of the elimination of the pro-Soviet Koreans and the latter because of the regime's refusal to acknowledge Chinese assistance in either liberation from the Japanese or the war in 1950–1953.<ref name=person-2008/>

Beginning in the late 1950s, North Korea and China began renegotiating their border, culminating in the 1962 [[Sino–North Korean Border Treaty]] and a 1964 companion that established the modern border between the two countries. [[File:USS Pueblo, Pyongyang, 2012.jpg|thumb|right|The captured USS ''Pueblo'' being visited by tourists in Pyongyang]]

Tensions between North and South escalated in the late 1960s with a series of low-level armed clashes known as the [[Korean DMZ Conflict (1966–1969)|Korean DMZ Conflict]]. In 1966, Kim declared "liberation of the south" to be a "national duty".<ref>{{cite book | last = Jager | first = Sheila Miyoshi | title = Brothers at War – The Unending Conflict in Korea | year = 2013 | publisher = Profile Books | location = London | isbn = 978-1-84668-067-0|page=366}}</ref> In 1968, North Korean commandos launched the [[Blue House Raid]], an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate the South Korean President [[Park Chung Hee]]. Shortly after, the US spy ship [[USS Pueblo (AGER-2)|Pueblo]] was captured by the North Korean navy.<ref>{{cite book| title = The Making of Modern Korea | last = Buzo | first = Adrian | year = 2002| publisher = Routledge|  location = London | isbn = 978-0-415-23749-9 |page=99}}</ref> The crew were held captive throughout the year despite American protests that the vessel was in international waters, and they were finally released in December after a formal US apology was issued.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lerner|first=Mitchell|title=The Pueblo Incident: A Spy Ship and the Failure of American Foreign Policy|date=2002|publisher=University Press of Kansas|location=Lawrence, KS|isbn=9780700611713}}</ref> In April 1969 a North Korean fighter jet [[1969 EC-121 shootdown incident|shot down]] an [[EC-121]] aircraft, killing all 31 crewmen on board. The Nixon administration found itself unable to react at all, since the US was heavily committed in the [[Vietnam War]] and had no troops to spare if the situation in Korea escalated. However, the ''Pueblo'' capture and EC-121 shootdown did not find approval in Moscow, as the Soviet Union did not want a second major war to erupt in Asia. China's response to the USS ''Pueblo'' crisis is less clear.<ref>[http://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/nkidp-e-dossier-no-5-new-romanian-evidence-the-blue-house-raid-and-the-uss-pueblo "New Romanian Evidence on the Blue House Raid and the USS Pueblo Incident."] NKIDP e-Dossier No. 5. Retrieved 3 May 2012.</ref>

After Khrushchev was replaced by [[Leonid Brezhnev]] as Soviet Leader in 1964, and with the incentive of Soviet aid, North Korea strengthened its ties with the USSR. Kim condemned China's [[Cultural Revolution]] as "unbelievable idiocy". In turn, China's Red Guards labelled him a "fat revisionist".<ref>{{cite book | last = Jager | first = Sheila Miyoshi | title = Brothers at War – The Unending Conflict in Korea | year = 2013 | publisher = Profile Books | location = London | isbn = 978-1-84668-067-0|page=376}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Radchenko|first=Sergey|title=The Soviet Union and the North Korean Seizure of the USS Pueblo: Evidence from Russian Archives|journal=Cold War International History Project Working Paper|issue=47|pages=11, 16|url=http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/CWIHP_WP_47.pdf|access-date=2014-03-05|archive-date=2018-08-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180817225006/https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/CWIHP_WP_47.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="China Quarterly 30">{{cite journal |date=April–June 1967 |title=Quarterly Chronicle and Documentation |jstor= 651878|journal=[[The China Quarterly]] |issue= 30|pages= 195–249}}</ref>

In 1972, the first formal summit meeting between Pyongyang and Seoul was held, but the cautious talks did not lead to a lasting change in the relationship.<ref>{{cite web|last=Shin|first=Jong-Dae|title=DPRK Perspectives on Korean Reunification after the July 4th Joint Communiqué|url=http://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/dprk-perspectives-korean-reunification-after-the-july-4th-joint-communiqu%C3%A9|work=NKIDP e-Dossier no. 10|publisher=Woodrow Wilson Center|access-date=5 March 2014}}</ref>

With the fall of South Vietnam to the North Vietnamese on 30 April 1975, Kim Il Sung felt that the US had shown its weakness and that reunification of Korea under his regime was possible. Kim visited Beijing in May 1975<ref name="China Quarterly 63">{{cite journal  |last1= Hook|first1=Brian | last2= Wilson|first2=Dick |last3=Yahuda |first3=Michael |date=September 1975 |title=Quarterly Chronicle and Documentation |jstor= 652772|journal=[[The China Quarterly]] |issue= 63|pages=572–610 }}</ref><ref name="Zagoria 1975">{{cite journal |last1= Zagoria|first1=Donald S. |last2= Kim|first2= Young Kun|date= December 1975|title=North Korea and the Major Powers |jstor= 2643582|journal= Asian Survey|volume= 15|issue= 12|pages=1017–1035 |doi= 10.2307/2643582}}</ref><ref name="Kim 1976">{{cite journal |last= Kim|first= Young C.|date= January 1976|title=The Democratic People's Republic of Korea in 1975 |jstor=2643284 |journal= Asian Survey|volume=16 |issue= 1|pages= 82–94|doi= 10.2307/2643284}}</ref> in the hope of gaining political and military support for this plan to invade South Korea again, but Mao Zedong refused.<ref name="auto3">{{cite book| title = The Making of Modern Korea | last = Buzo | first = Adrian | year = 2002| publisher = Routledge|  location = London | isbn = 978-0-415-23749-9 |page=128}}</ref> Despite public proclamations of support, Mao privately told Kim that China would be unable to assist North Korea because of the lingering after-effects of the Cultural Revolution throughout China, and because Mao had recently decided to restore diplomatic relations with the US.<ref>{{cite web|last=Chae|first=Ria|title=East German Documents on Kim Il Sung's April 1975 Trip to Beijing|url=http://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/east-german-documents-kim-il-sung%E2%80%99s-april-1975-trip-to-beijing|work=NKIDP e-Dossier no. 7|publisher=Woodrow Wilson Center|access-date=5 March 2014}}</ref>

Meanwhile, North Korea emphasized its independent orientation by joining the [[Non-Aligned Movement]] in 1975.<ref>{{cite book| title = The Making of Modern Korea | last = Buzo | first = Adrian | year = 2002| publisher = Routledge|  location = London | isbn = 978-0-415-23749-9 |page=129}}</ref> It promoted ''[[Juche]]'' as a model for developing countries to follow.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Armstrong|first=Charles|title=Juche and North Korea's Global_Aspirations|journal=NKIDP Working Paper|date=April 2009|issue=1|url=http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/NKIDP_Working_Paper_1_Juche_and_North_Koreas_Global_Aspirations_web.pdf}}</ref> It developed strong ties with the regimes of Bokassa in the [[Central African Republic]], Macias Nguema in [[Equatorial Guinea]], Idi Amin in [[Uganda]], Pol Pot in Cambodia, Gaddafi in [[Libya]], and Ceausescu in [[Romania]].<ref name="auto1"/>

=== Economic development ===
[[File:North Korean village in Yalu River delta.jpg|thumb|left|North Korean village in the Yalu River delta]]
Reconstruction of the country after the war proceeded with extensive Chinese and Soviet assistance.<ref name=Armstrong-2010>{{cite journal |url=http://japanfocus.org/-Charles_K_-Armstrong/3460 |title=The Destruction and Reconstruction of North Korea, 1950 – 1960 |author=Charles K. Armstrong |journal=The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus |year=2010 |access-date=3 May 2010 |archive-date=23 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101223030716/http://japanfocus.org/-Charles_K_-Armstrong/3460 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Shen|first=Zhihua|author2=Yafeng Xia|title=China and the Post-War Reconstruction of North Korea, 1953–1961|journal=NKIDP Working Paper|date=May 2012|issue=4|url=http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/NKIDP_Working_Paper_4_China_and_the_Postwar_Reconstruction_of_North_Korea.pdf|access-date=5 March 2014|archive-date=5 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170705205556/https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/NKIDP_Working_Paper_4_China_and_the_Postwar_Reconstruction_of_North_Korea.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Koreans with experience in Japanese industries also played a significant part.<ref>{{cite book | title = Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History| last = Cumings| first = Bruce| author-link = Bruce Cumings| year = 2005| publisher = [[W. W. Norton & Company]]| location = New York| isbn = 978-0-393-32702-1 |page=430}}</ref> Land was collectivized between 1953 and 1958. Many landlords had been eliminated by the earlier reforms or during the war.<ref name="auto4">{{cite book | title = Korea since 1850 | last1 = Lone |  first1 = Stewart| last2 = McCormack | first2 = Gavan | author-link2 = Gavan McCormack | publisher = Longman Cheshire | location = Melbourne | year = 1993 | page=185 }}</ref>

Recovery from the war was slowed by a massive famine in 1954–55. Local officials had exaggerated the size of the harvest by 50–70%. After the central government took its share, starvation threatened many peasants; about 800,000 died. In addition collectivization was resisted; many farmers killed their livestock rather than turn them over to the collective farm.<ref>[[Andrei Lankov]]. "Trouble Brewing: The North Korean Famine of 1954–1955 and Soviet Attitudes toward North Korea."  ''Journal of Cold War Studies'' 22:2 (Spring 2020) pp:3–25. [https://hdiplo.org/to/AR1020 online]</ref>

Although developmental debates took place within the Workers' Party of Korea in the 1950s, North Korea, like all the postwar [[communist states]], undertook massive state investment in heavy industry, state infrastructure and military strength, neglecting the production of consumer goods.<ref name=person-2008>{{cite web |url=http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/CWIHPBulletin16_p51.pdf |title=New Evidence on North Korea in 1956 |author=James F. Person |publisher=Cold War International History Project |year=2008 |access-date=3 May 2012 |archive-date=3 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121203002122/http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/CWIHPBulletin16_p51.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The first Three Year Plan (1954–1956) introduced the concept of ''[[Juche]]'' or self-reliance.<ref name="Robinson 2007">{{cite book| title = Korea's Twentieth-Century Odyssey | url = https://archive.org/details/koreastwentieth00robi | url-access = registration | last = Robinson | first = Michael E | year = 2007 | publisher = University of Hawaii Press |  location = Honolulu | isbn = 978-0-8248-3174-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/koreastwentieth00robi/page/151 151]}}</ref> The first Five Year Plan (1957–1961) consolidated the collectivization of agriculture and initiated mass mobilizations campaigns: the [[Chollima Movement]], the [[Economy of North Korea#Ch'ŏngsan-ni Method|Chongsan-ni]] system in agriculture and the [[Economy of North Korea#Taean work system|Taean Work System]] in industry.<ref name="Robinson 2007"/><ref>{{cite web|author=James F. Person|date=February 2009|title=New Evidence on North Korea's Chollima Movement and First-Five-Year Plan (1957–1961)|url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/publication/NKIDP_Document_Reader__North_Korean_Chollima_Movement_and_First_Five_Year_Plan.pdf|publisher=North Korea International Documentation Project|access-date=28 July 2020}}</ref> The Chollima Movement was influenced by China's [[Great Leap Forward]], but did not have its disastrous results.<ref name="Robinson 2007"/> Industry was fully nationalized by 1959.<ref>{{cite book | title = Korea| last = Bluth | first = Christoph | year = 2008| publisher = Polity Press| location = Cambridge| isbn = 978-07456-3357-2 |page=33}}</ref> Taxation on agricultural income was abolished in 1966.<ref name="auto4"/>

North Korea was placed on a semi-war footing, with equal emphasis being given to the civilian and military economies. This was expressed in the 1962 Party Plenum by the slogan, "Arms in one hand and a hammer and sickle in the other! "<ref>{{cite book| title = The Making of Modern Korea | last = Buzo | first = Adrian | year = 2002| publisher = Routledge|  location = London | isbn = 978-0-415-23749-9 |page=98}}</ref> At a special party conference in 1966, members of the leadership who opposed the military build-up were removed.<ref>{{cite book| title = The Making of Modern Korea | last = Buzo | first = Adrian | year = 2002| publisher = Routledge|  location = London | isbn = 978-0-415-23749-9 |pages=98–99}}</ref>

On the ruins left by the war, North Korea had built an industrialized command economy. The regime reached out to the [[Third World]] in the hope of developing strong trade relations.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nknews.org/2021/12/north-korean-capitalisms-failure-in-the-third-world/|title=North Korean capitalism's failure in the Third World|first=Benjamin R|last=Young|date=2 December 2021|publisher=[[NK News]]}}</ref> [[Che Guevara]], then a Cuban government minister, visited North Korea in 1960, and proclaimed it a model for Cuba to follow. In 1965, the British economist [[Joan Robinson]] described North Korea's economic development as a "miracle".<ref>{{cite book | title = Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History| last = Cumings| first = Bruce| author-link = Bruce Cumings| year = 2005| publisher = [[W. W. Norton & Company]]| location = New York| isbn = 978-0-393-32702-1 |page=404}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = Nothing to Envy: Love, Life and Death in North Korea | last = Demick | first = Barbara | author-link = Barbara Demick | year = 2010 | publisher = Fourth Estate | location = Sydney| isbn = 9780732286613 |page=64}}</ref> As late as the 1970s, its GDP per capita was estimated to be equivalent to South Korea's.<ref>{{cite book| title = The Making of Modern Korea | last = Buzo | first = Adrian | year = 2002| publisher = Routledge|  location = London | isbn = 978-0-415-23749-9 |page=140}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History| last = Cumings| first = Bruce| author-link = Bruce Cumings| year = 2005| publisher = [[W. W. Norton & Company]]| location = New York| isbn = 978-0-393-32702-1 |page=434}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| title = Korea's Twentieth-Century Odyssey | url = https://archive.org/details/koreastwentieth00robi | url-access = registration | last = Robinson | first = Michael E | year = 2007 | publisher = University of Hawaii Press |  location = Honolulu | isbn = 978-0-8248-3174-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/koreastwentieth00robi/page/153 153]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = Korea| last = Bluth | first = Christoph | year = 2008| publisher = Polity Press| location = Cambridge| isbn = 978-07456-3357-2 |page=34}}</ref> By 1968, all homes had electricity, though the supply was unreliable.<ref>{{cite book| title = Kim Il-song's North Korea | last = Hunter | first = Helen-Louise | year = 1999 | publisher = Praeger |  location = Westport, Connecticut | isbn = 978-0-275-96296-8 |page=196}}</ref> By 1972, all children from age 5 to 16 were enrolled in school, and over 200 universities and specialized colleges had been established.<ref>{{cite book| title = The Making of Modern Korea | last = Buzo | first = Adrian | year = 2002| publisher = Routledge|  location = London | isbn = 978-0-415-23749-9 |page=101}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = Korea since 1850 | last1 = Lone |  first1 = Stewart| last2 = McCormack | first2 = Gavan | author-link2 = Gavan McCormack | publisher = Longman Cheshire | location = Melbourne | year = 1993 | page=196 }}</ref> By the early 1980s, 60–70% of the population was urbanized.<ref>{{cite book | title = Korea since 1850 | last1 = Lone |  first1 = Stewart| last2 = McCormack | first2 = Gavan | author-link2 = Gavan McCormack | publisher = Longman Cheshire | location = Melbourne | year = 1993 | page=187 }}</ref>