The Juche ideology
Man cycling along the Taedong river, Pyongyang, North Korea, February 2017.
The Juche ideology emphasizes North Korean self-reliance in all fields: economy, politics and military. Its basic premise is that man is the master of everything and decides everything. Man has ultimate control over himself and the ability to change the world.
This is in sharp contrast to classical Marxism, which believes that humans depend on their relationship to the means of production more than on themselves. Another important difference is the belief in a Great Leader leading the revolution, instead of, group of knowledgeable revolutionaries leading it.a
“In a nutshell, the idea of Juche means that the masters of the revolution and the work of construction are the masses of the people and that they are also the motive force of the revolution and the work of construction. In other words, one is responsible for one’s own destiny and one has also the capacity for shaping one’s own destiny”
