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The North Korean regime under Kim Il-Sung and later Kim Jong-Il has been widely regarded as an inexplicable anomaly shrouded in secrecy, even among communist regimes. Such a perception of the DPRK as sui generis is clearly not conducive to theoretically relevant research based on contextualized comparisons. This paper argues that as unusual as the DPRK may seem, there is striking regime affinity between the DPRK and Ceausescu's Romania. Both were pariah low-status communist regimes with highly personalistic dictatorships that attempted to blend a strong nationalist ideology with a rigid Stalinist developmental model. The source of this rather peculiar nation-building strategy could be traced to both regimes' weak initial legitimacy and their insignificant status in the international communist movement. Both regimes nevertheless persisted despite relentless repression and appalling living conditions their citizens had to endure. In the case of Romania, the Ceausescu regime was the last to fall among non-indigenous Eastern European communist regimes, and it was the only instance of violent regime transition in 1989. This paper argues that unlike in most reform communist regimes, in both Ceausescu's Romania and the DPRK, the role of strong anti-liberal ideology that combined both far left and far right nationalist elements was highly significant in sustaining the regime and therefore should not be underestimated. While the Gorbachev reform and the revolutions elsewhere in Eastern Europe effectively deprived the Ceausescu regime of potential nationalist cards it could play and thus precipitated regime change in Romania, the DPRK regime was able to hold on to power by using imagined and real external threats, such as the recent nuclear and missile crises, to justifying its ongoing domestic repression and reinforce its nationalist claims. Consequently, it could be predicted that short of a total economic collapse, the North Korean regime is unlikely to break down very soon and is instead likely to survive for some time as long as there is no dramatic change in the international environment that facilitates internal regime change. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The North Korean regime under Kim Il-Sung and later Kim Jong-Il has been widely regarded as an inexplicable anomaly shrouded in secrecy, even among communist regimes. This paper argues that the salient features and longevity of the North Korean regime can be better understood by exploring the parallels between the DPRK and Romania during the efforts to construct “national Stalinism” in the two countries. Both regimes attempted to blend a strong nationalist ideology with a rigid model of Stalinist development. The source of this rather peculiar and persistent nation-building strategy could be traced to both regimes’ weak initial legitimacy and their near-pariah status in the international communist movement. In the case of Romania, the Ceausescu regime was the last to fall among non-indigenous Eastern European communist regimes, and it was the only instance of violent regime transition in 1989. In the case of North Korea, whatever happens, the regime has certainly outllasted its East European counterparts by nearly two decades now. This paper argues that, in both Ceausescu’s Romania and the DPRK, the role of an especially strong anti-liberal ideology that combined both far left and far right nationalist elements was highly significant in sustaining the regime. While the Gorbachev reform and the revolutions elsewhere in Eastern Europe effectively deprived the Ceausescu regime of potential nationalist cards it could play and thus precipitated regime change in Romania, the DPRK regime was able to hold on to power by using imagined and real external threats, such as the recent nuclear and missile crises, to justify its ongoing domestic repression and reinforce its nationalist claims. Consequently, it could be predicted that short of a total economic collapse or a dramatic change in the international environment, the communist regime is not likely to experience the “Leninist extinction” (Jowitt) that took out its counterparts in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper about the political implications of North Korea's Internet strategy is presented. It looks at the information technology (IT) sector of North Korea. It examines the evolution of North Korea's intranet and internet strategy in light of some recent signs of further relaxation to break the IT sector's stagnation.