By Maria Juliana Martinez Riveros
The term juche (주체) was first introduced by DPRK founder Kim Il-Sung. While opinions differ as to what an adequate translation would be, there is a consensus that it relates to auto-sufficiency and autonomy. If we take a look at the Chinese spelling (主體), the first character means “owner” or “master”, while the second translates as “body”, “essence” and “nature”. In the North Korean context, juche intimately intertwines with Kimilsungism and the unique take his party had on communism. Indeed, the term became popular in the 1950s, indicative of a shift in the isolationist political context of the country. On the one hand, it was a period where the North-South hostilities had relatively stabilized. On the other hand, North Korea was becoming increasingly estranged from neighbouring communist powers China and the Soviet Union. As such, juche was framed as being an ideology indigenous to the North, having no connection to South Korea or the communist world. Over time, juche started to shift to a personality cult, with several elements reminiscent of fanaticism. North Korean thought believes Kim Il-sung to have been born on the same hill upon which legendary Gojoseon emperor Tangun’s father had descended from heaven. To further highlight Kim Il-sung’s exceptionalism, officials from his government introduced the juche calendar in 1997, a calendar that started with the leader’s date of birthday. When Kim died in 1994, the country was going through a harsh famine, affecting millions. That did not deter the government from spending millions on the construction of a pyramid over Tangun’s mausoleum. Other than the mausoleum restoration, the regime also ordered a renovation of the palace where Kim Il-sung’s embalmed remains were to be displayed for everyone to see. Young North Koreans have intensive classes surveying the Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un’s lives. Their lives are embellished by ‘miracles’: for example, Kim Jong-il is said to have authored over 1,500 and Kim Jon-un allegedly drove a car for the first time at 3 years of age. These narratives are distributed and kept relevant via the state’s tight control over the information citizens have access to. Juche, with its emphasis on self-reliance, obviously clashes with the normalization of foreign relations within the DPRK. Other than the concept of self-reliance, juche also insinuates that “Korea’s tragic experiences during the twentieth century – colonization, division, war, and even the recent famine – were imposed upon it by outside powers that sought domination over the peninsula.” As such, due to this historical trauma, attempts at a normalization of relations, especially those initiated by the United States are viewed with suspicion at best. Very few non-governmental organizations have been able to expand into North Korea. Notably, the Swiss organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been present in the DPRK since 1995, although, it presently has a mere 3-person team. More recently however, Kim Jong-un has voiced North Korea’s support for the Palestinian cause, ushering a probably new era of North Korean presence in the international arena.
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