Jucheism

Juche, usually translated as "self-reliance", is the official political ideology of North Korea, described by the regime as Kim Il-sung's "original, brilliant and revolutionary contribution to national and international thought". It claims that an individual is "the master of his destiny" and that the North Korean masses are to act as the "masters of the revolution and construction".

Kim Il-sung (1912–1994) developed the ideology – originally viewed as a variant of Marxism–Leninism – to become distinctly "Korean" in character, breaking ranks with the deterministic and materialist ideas of Marxism–Leninism and strongly emphasising the individual, the nation state and its sovereignty. Consequentially, Juche was adopted into a set of principles that the North Korean government has used to justify its policy decisions from the 1950s onwards. Such principles include moving the nation towards claimed "chaju" (independence), through the construction of "charip" (national economy) and an emphasis upon "chawi" (self-defence), in order to establish socialism.

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In the speech On Socialist Construction and the South Korean Revolution in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, given on April 14, 1965, Kim Il-sung outlined the three fundamental principles of Juche:

•Political independence

•Economic self-sustenance

•Self-reliance in defence

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Unlike the Joseon dynasty, where there was a huge gap between the upper and lower classes, North Korea had adopted the concept of a gathered-together "people". Instead of a strict social hierarchy, North Korea had, in theory, divided the union into three classes

• Peasant

• Worker

• Intellectuals

where each was just as important as the other. The Intellectual class consisted of clerks, small traders, bureaucrats, professors and writers. This was a unique class that was created in order to increase the education and literacy of North Korea's population.