to relax and engage in a variety of other activites. They are not allowed any freedom to travel or to visit friends and relatives now. If a factory worker misses a day's work for sickness or other valid reason, he receives 60 percent of his day's wage; but if a farmer misses a day's work, even for a valid reason, he receives no work points at all.

People who were sent from urban areas to work on farms are particularly suspect politically. Farmers, in general, believe that they are subject to political indifference by the Government. The source said he heard that in 1965 Kim Il-song said, after he visited a rural area, that there seemed to be no key people in farming areas who could lead farmers politically. The reason he was reported to have said this was that the farmers in the area visited by Kim Il-song had generally poor political backgrounds. The children of farmers with good political backgrounds and who had the talent and training had left the farms for work in urban areas. These children were later reported to have been recalled to their home farming areas.

The source said that the North Korean Government now had a policy of retaining people in rural areas, especially those with good political backgrounds and training. Authorities cut back the number of technical school graduates allowed to go on to senior technical schools. Instead of going on to more advanced education, technical school graduates were sent to work in rural areas.

Students

The source divided students into two categories: (1) those receiving nine years of compulsory education, and (2) those receiving higher education, including senior technical school and college. The source's remarks pertain to the second group of students.

The common grievance of students is that job assignments after graduation are influenced more by family background (songbun) than by academic record. There are no competitive test for jobs as in the ROK. Students graduate and are then assigned jobs. Political activity by students while at school is also a factor in future job assignments.

Students worry not about whether or not they will get a job, but rather about the type of job they will get. A person with a good family background will receive a good job; a student with a politically unfavorable family background, even though he has a good academic record, will receive a less attractive job, and perhaps in a remote area. Of course, to enter college a student must have a good family background, but even among good family backgrounds there are many gradations which influence a students's future in the North Korean social system.

The source remembered the case of an honor student at Kim Il-song University who had majored in languages and literature, but the student's father, the source believed, had been a refugee to the ROK during the Korean War. For this reason, the honor student was assigned as an ordinary worker in a construction materials factory in a rural area.

Source learned about this one day in Dec. 1967 when he went to visit his wife's parents and heard it from a former student who was there with the source's brother-in-law. The source asked him why he had a bandage on his hand, and the former honor student told his story. He had the bandage on his hand because of injuries caused by manual labor at his job. The onetime student was very dissatisfied with what had happened to him.

Students were also dissatisfied with the frequent and excessive compulsory social labor they had to do while attending school. In principle, college students had to engage in compulsory social labor for 30 days a year, divided into two 15-day periods, one during the rice-planting season and the other during the rice-harvesting season. In practice, however, students had to do more compulsory social labor at the rice-planting and rice-harvesting seasons than was specified. In addition, they had to spend a lot of time doing other forms of compulsory social labor throughout the year, both at school and elsewhere.

Students were dissatisfied with their overly organized and controlled life, which included compulsory attendance at many ideological indoctrination meetings, lectures, discussions, and rallies. Also, most college students had to live in dormitories at their school; there, life was strictly regulated.

College students were curious and interested in knowing what was happening in the world outside of North Korea, but under the North Korean system such information was not available.

Also, the source said that college students were romantic by nature, but the strict regultion of their lives and their education in required and ideological subjects prevented them from enjoying their youth, let alone experiencing the romantic aspects they hoped for.

Students during the compulsory nine years of education were still immature, accepting whatever was taught. They had not yet developed sufficiently and did not have enough experience to make significant complaints and adopt critical attitudes.

Intellectuals

The source separated intellectuals into two categories: old and young. Old intellectuals

Old intellectuals (nalgon inteli) were those who received higher education during the Japanese occupation of Korea. Therefore, because most of these intellectuals had bourgeois parents, they were not considered by North Korean authorities as a key or basic class. They were targeted to be removed from their positions. In North Korea now, however, they are utilized as subjects for the North Korean program for reform of old intellectuals. Also, old intellectuals were the targets of ideological indoctrination activities under the slogan of revolutionization of intellectuals, which, according to the source, encompasses only old intellectuals. Gen

erally, there has been a lot of unrest among intellectuals in their normal lives, and as a group they have been frustrated by the system. Accordingly, old intellectuals can be characterized by a passive attitude toward their jobs and activities and by a desire only to maintain the status quo. They are easygoing and do not seek any change in the system. They are "yes men" in responding to their supervisors. Most chief technicians at enterprises are old intellectuals. For example, a chief technician might develop a new idea and implement it. If he is successful, there is no problem. But if the idea is unsuccessful, he is severely criticized and held responsible for the failure. Authorities will criticize his failure by telling him that since he came from the old bourgeois class he was influenced by egoism and personal ambition. North Korean ideology says these qualities are commonly found in old intellectuals. Officials will also criticize the chief technician for wasting a lot of state property and materials. Therefore, knowing this will happen, most intellectuals adopt a passive attitude, lack enthusiasm, and try to maintain the status quo in their work. They are afraid to take chances and to dare to make improvements that might go awry.

A characteristic of old intellectuals who are writers is that their literary output is conservative and contains no innovations. Rather, they write with strict adherence to North Korean ideology, emphasizing class consciousness and Kim Il-song's teachings.

Source said that many old intellectuals, including artists, were purged after the Korean Labor Party's Congress in August 1956, when many politicians who were members of anti-Kim Il-song factions were also purged. At that time, North Korean authorities revealed to the North Korean people at meetings what anti-Party elements had done. Among these explanations, the source recalled one in the literary field in which a novel written by a purged writer was used as an example. The novel was about a mother whose only son joined the Army and went to a frontline unit. She worried very much about her son and prayed for his safety. The novelist stressed the mother's affection for her son. This was the main theme of the novel, but North Korean authorities criticized the book because of this theme and said the novel lacked class consciousness. Why should a mother in a socialist society worry about her son? Instead, said the official critics, the mother should have encouraged her son to join the glorious people's army to fight for the fatherland and the people. They also criticized the novel for developing people's hatred and pessimism toward war. They said the novel had no social value.

Old intellectuals are discontented because they are ignored, disregarded, and mistreated by Party workers who are even less educated themselves. Many old intellectuals are not satisfied with jobs they hold and therefore display little enthusiasm for the work. Because of this, old intellectuals are criticized and blamed for conservativism and for being indifferent to political activity.

Old intellectuals tend to be afraid of being replaced by young intellectuals, something happening gradually throughout North Korea.

Old intellectuals want the class policy (gyekop chongchek) of the North Korean Government to be ended. In North Korea, class is continually emphasized in all aspects of life, in propaganda, meetings, and indoctrination sessions. Old intellectuals want this ended along with restrictions on their advancement because of class and family background. They propose that people be allowed to progress in the society because of talent, performance, and ability.

Young Intellectuals

Young intellectuals (jolmoon inteli), as described by the source, are men and women educated in North Korea and in other Communist countries after the liberation of North Korea from Japanese occupation in

1945.

Young intellectuals, as are old intellectuals, are criticized for having a passive attitude toward their jobs. In North Korea, it is thought that in terms of technical knowledge, talent, and ability young intellectuals are inferior to old intellectuals. When young intellectuals are criticized for some error, they are also criticized for being inferior to old intellectuals and for the misuse of the Party and Government gift of an excellent education and much other assistance in their studies. Now, they have failed to pay back the Party and Government. Officials tell them that they are still inferior to old intellectuals despite what the Party and Government have done for them.

When young intellectuals who studied in other Communist countries are criticized for some error, officials contend that they have been influenced by "revisionism." There is a tendency for other intellectuals to envy young intellectuals who have had the opportunity to study abroad. Source said it was a common belief that young intellectuals who studied abroad were really not superior to those who had studied in North Korea. But young intellectuals who had studied abroad "put on airs" and considered themselves superior to those who had studied only in North Korea.

Old and young intellectuals, because of knowledge and educational background, had a keen perception of the realities of life in North Korea. They could see social, political, and economic contradictions and problems there. Because of this characteristic, they were apt to make accidental remarks in their normal conversation which revealed their inner awareness of problems in the system and to voice their complaints about it. The North Korean officialdom criticized them for this.

Government Office Workers

This group includes people who work in North Korean Government offices from the Cabinet down to the ri level. It does not include office workers in factories and enterprises or full-time workers in Party organizations.

North Korea builds up and reinforces the image of Government office workers as being the best qualified North Koreans because they work for the Government and as such as leaders of the masses. Because Government office workers are treated in such a way by North Korean authorities, they tend to become self-satisfied, and their perception and insight into the world around them are dulled.

The source emphasized that here lies the big difference in characteristics between Government office workers and intellectuals. Intellectuals are continually subjected to criticism, but their perception of reality is sharp. Government office workers are praised, but their perception of reality is blurred.

Government office workers, although they are praised as leaders of the masses, are continually assigned hard tasks and heavy workloads, and their pay in return is low-not much more than that of ordinary factory workers. Government office workers have to work long hours on their jobs and do not receive extra work allowances. But factory workers have rotating shifts and do get extra work allowances for high production. Because of long hours and heavy workloads, many Government office workers suffer from poor health.

What Government office workers want is an opportunity for advancement and higher salaries. However, the criteria for promotion is based more on an employee's political activities than on his job performance.

Full-Time Party Office Workers

This group comprises Party members in full-time jobs in Party organizations from the Central Committee down to the ri level. Party office workers are considered key personnel and a nucleus in North Korean society. They are the most envied of all groups in North Korea. They enjoy more authority and influence than any other group in North Korean society and receive the best social treatment of all groups there. As a result, they are generally very enthusiastic about their work, apply themselves diligently, and have great personal dignity. Economically, however, they are not so well off as such occupational groups as factory workers, technicians, and engineers.

The source said that if Party office workers had grievances, they would be economic-that is, standard of living and salary.

Military Personnel

The source said that generally young officers and enlisted men, company grades and below, were influenced by and accepted what they were told in North Korean propaganda and indoctrination. For this reason, he believed they had no fear of war. They believe the propaganda that North Korean military forces are second to none. The source attributed this attitude to the fact the young officers and enlisted men had not actually experienced the horrors of war or of the Korean War. Also, they have no knowledge of the outside world. The actual strength and performance capabilities of military forces of other nations are unknown.