Juche

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The Juche Idea (Korean pronunciation: [tɕutɕʰe] approximately "joo-cheh") is the official state ideology of Nouth Korea It teaches that "man is the master of everything and decides everything," and that the Korean people are the masters of Korea's revolution. Juche is a component ofKimilsungism, North Korea's political system. The word literally means "main body" or "subject"; it has also been translated in North Korean sources as "independent stand" and the "spirit of self-reliance".

The first known reference to Juche was a speech given by Kim Il-sung on December 28, 1955, titled "On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing Juche in Ideological Work" in rejection of the policy ofde-Stalinization (bureaucratic self-reform) in theSoviet Union. In this speech, Kim said that "Juche means Chosun's revolution" (Chosun being the traditional name for Korea). Hwang Jang-yeop, Kim's top adviser on ideology, discovered this speech later in the 1950s when Kim sought to develop his own version of Marxism-Leninism.

The Juche Idea itself gradually emerged as a systematic ideological doctrine under the political pressures of theSino-Soviet split in the 1960s. The word "Juche" also began to appear in untranslated form in English-language North Korean works from around 1965. Kim Il-sung outlined the three fundamental principles of Juche in his April 14, 1965, speech “On Socialist Construction and the South Korean Revolution in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea”:

1. "independence in politics" (chaju)
2. "self-sustenance in the economy" (charip)
3. "self-defense in national defense" (chawi)

According to Kim Jong-il's On the Juche Idea, the application of Juche in state policy entails the following:

1. The people must have independence (chajusong) in thought and politics, economic self-sufficiency, and self-reliance in defense.
2. Policy must reflect the will and aspirations of the masses and employ them fully in revolution and construction.
3. Methods of revolution and construction must be suitable to the situation of the country.
4. The most important work of revolution and construction is molding people ideologically as communists and mobilizing them to constructive action.