The Juche Idea
Kim Il Sung's Juche Idea includes these goals: the lack of a central state government, a classless society, prevalent atheism, political and economic independence to foster growth, self-reliance, and veneration of leadership. It's based upon the ideas of Marxism-Leninism. Kim was able to draw from the thirst for independence caused by historic Chinese and Japanese oppression in Korea.
"For years Kim toted the Communist line, particularly in and after the Korean War, and demonstrated great devotion and loyalty to Stalin and Mao. Eventually this gave way completely to Kim’s own cult of personality, Juche philosophy and brutal tactics, which were used to maintain legitimacy and control over society."
- Chris DeRusha, Department of Homeland Security
"Establishing juche means, in a nutshell, being the master of revolution and reconstruction in one’s own country. This means holding fast to an independent position, rejecting dependence on others, using one’s own brains, believing in one’s own strength, displaying the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance, and thus solving one’s own problems for oneself on one’s own responsibility under all circumstances." |
"To successfully accomplish socialism, we must adhere to ideology by regarding it as most important. We must give priority to ideological work over everything else. For a working-class party, which struggles for the masses independence, no undertaking is more important that ideological work." |