[Yang Nak-gyu's Defence Club] Will North Korean Soldiers Also Take Chuseok Holiday Leave?

North Korea Also Celebrates Holidays but Leadership Uses Kim Il-sung Family for Idolization
Kim Jong-un Sends Wreaths to Mansudae Ancestors' Tombs During Chuseok

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] While Chuseok is considered the biggest ethnic holiday in South Korea, in North Korea it holds much less significance compared to other holidays.

According to defectors, unlike South Koreans who perform ancestral rites at home on Chuseok morning before visiting graves, North Koreans do not hold rites at home and go directly to the gravesites. Most North Korean residents do not own private vehicles and use public transportation to visit graves, with buses packed with grave visitors often described as being like a "bean sprout basket."

Aside from these few differences, the way North Koreans celebrate Chuseok is not much different from South Koreans. Close relatives gather after a long time to check on each other’s well-being, offer food made from the new harvest to ancestors to express gratitude, and make wishes upon the full moon, confirming that both North and South Koreans share the same ethnic roots.

North Korea, rejecting traditional ethnic holidays as incompatible with socialist lifestyles, designated Chuseok as a holiday in 1988, Lunar New Year in 1989, and Jeongwol Daeboreum (the first full moon of the lunar year) in 2003. The "biggest ethnic holidays" in North Korea are not Chuseok but the birthdays of President Kim Il-sung and National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-il. April 15 (Kim Il-sung) and February 16 (Kim Jong-il) are both public holidays extending through the day after, celebrated more grandly than Chuseok, which is only a one-day holiday.

After the 3rd Workers' Party Representative Conference in September 2009 appointed Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-il’s third son, as successor, some domestic media claimed that Kim Jong-un’s birthday (January 8) was designated a holiday last year, but this has not been officially confirmed.

▲ Holidays used for Kim Il-sung family idolization = Officials working in the party and state institutions and some residents visit revolutionary martyrs’ cemeteries and patriotic martyrs’ cemeteries across the country, including Pyongyang, to offer wreaths and bouquets during Chuseok. This shows that the North Korean authorities use the folk holiday of Chuseok to idolize the Kim Il-sung family.

North Korea officially designated Kim Jong-il’s birthday as a public holiday in 1976, two years after he was appointed successor to Kim Il-sung, and after Kim Il-sung’s death in 1995, designated it as the "biggest ethnic holiday," extending the holiday to two days. Along with the birthdays of the Kim family, North Korea also designates the government founding day (September 9) and the party founding day (October 10) as "real holidays."

The first Chuseok after the official launch of the Kim Jong-un regime in 2012 was also used extensively to highlight the legitimacy of the new leadership. Kim Jong-un, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission, sent a wreath bearing his name to the graves of his great-grandparents Kim Bo-hyon and Lee Bo-ik in Mangyongdae.

At that time, the Workers' Party organ Rodong Sinmun praised Kim Jong-il’s "teachings and measures regarding folk holidays," saying Chuseok had developed further as a national holiday, and the publication Uri Minjok Kkiri stated, "During Chuseok, the people express gratitude to Marshal Kim Jong-un for further blossoming folk traditions," highlighting Kim Jong-un as well.

In 2013, on Chuseok, Kim Jong-un sent wreaths to the Pyongyang Taesongsan Revolutionary Martyrs’ Cemetery, Patriotic Martyrs’ Cemetery, the graves of war martyrs from the Fatherland Liberation War (Korean War), and the graves of Kim Il-sung’s grandparents Kim Bo-hyon and Ri Bo-ik, as well as his parents Kim Hyong-jik and Kang Pan-sok in Mangyongdae District.

North Korean ordinary soldiers are allowed reward leave or special leave for parental death
Reward leave benefits are concentrated on special forces rather than regular units
Special and material leave are mainly given to party officials or high-ranking families

▲ How do South and North Korean military holiday leaves compare? During holidays, South Korean soldiers often receive various leaves to return home. Ordinary soldiers can apply for leave and, considering unit circumstances, enjoy ethnic holidays with their families. South Korean soldiers use various leave systems under military service regulations, including annual leave, official leave, petition leave, consolation leave, reward leave, compensation leave, pre-discharge leave, and disaster relief leave.

In contrast, North Korean military has almost no leave or visitation system. Even during long-term service of 10 years, soldiers are allowed only one regular leave per year (15 days) according to regulations. Unlike South Korea, North Korea has a unique leave system called material leave, which can be granted for up to 30 days. Since the severe economic crisis in the 1990s, units at various levels grant material leave to soldiers capable of procuring necessary supplies for the unit.

However, this is not official leave. It is mostly disguised as special leave for reasons such as the death of a soldier’s immediate family, with leave certificates issued accordingly. Such material leave is mainly concentrated among party officials or children of high-ranking elites who have the ability to procure goods.

Ordinary soldiers only have reward leave or special leave for parental death. Even these were completely suspended after the 1968 Pueblo incident due to heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula, and since the 1980s, regular leave has not been granted under the slogan "Let’s not take leave until unification."

Special leave for the death of immediate family members usually lasts 10 to 15 days and is called compassionate leave or petition leave. Marriage leave applies only to officers or long-term non-commissioned officers, as soldiers are not allowed to marry during military service.

Due to outdated communication systems, death notifications are often delayed, and leave procedures are complicated, resulting in leave being granted only after funerals have concluded.

Reward leave is granted only to soldiers recognized for special merits after strict review by a merit evaluation committee. It is mainly given to special units such as militia battalions, alert infantry units, reconnaissance battalions, sniper units, and air and naval forces, with little benefit for regular units like artillery.

North Korean soldiers spend 10 years without leave or visitation. This helps explain why military avoidance is increasing among North Korea’s younger generation.