Uploaded January 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This video is an explanation of the North Korean Ideology called Juche. I explain the theory and praxis of the ideology as well as the philosophical background and main principles.
Patreon: patreon.com/viki1999
Subreddit: reddit.com/r/viki1999
Twitter: twitter.com/Viki1999Yt
E-Mail Address: viki1999mail@gmail.com
Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:54 Praxis
2:29 Theory
5:37 Criticism
8:33 Conclusion/Outro
Links:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juche
marxists.org/glossary/terms/j/u.htm
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc-fZHutM0BHn7pFHd189R9cGX4Adp2Ik
Transcript:
Hello everybody! What is Juche? That is the question surprisingly many people spammed in my comment section, so we are answering it. To oversimplify Juche is a socialist ideology which advocates for self-reliance and isolation from other countries. It’s also the state ideology of North Korea which…is kinda controversial among leftists.
We are really into fighting about whether Juche is leftist at all. With Marxist Leninist aka tankie people saying yes and libertarian leftists like anarcho-communists saying no. In this video I will judge the theoretical ideology of Juche and focus less on how well those principles are implemented in North Korea nowadays. Both for the sake of time and for the sake of not getting hated by both of these groups.
Juche is a Korean ideology, and it is specific to the conditions in Korea, a hundred years ago. According to north Korean sources Juche was first developed by Kim Il-sung in the 1930s. During that time Korea was colonized by Japan and he was a member of the Anti-Imperialist Youth League.
TLDR eventually japan starts and then loses a war with the USA, and the USSR also declares war at the last minute. They divide the Japanese empire up like this. They couldn’t decide what to do with Korea, so they split it in two and decided to deal with it later. They haven’t dealt with it yet.
Kim Il-sung was a big boy socialist so Stalin made him and his party, the leaders of the new Democratic People’s Republic of Korea aka North Korea. Il-sung found himself in a political and material reality which was not suited to other forms of socialism which had been tried in other places. A Marxist Leninist or syndicalist style revolution would not have worked considering the education standards and geopolitical situation in North Korea at the time.
So, as every socialist leader does, he made his own ideology specific to the Korean conditions. Juche has been in control of North Korea since the 50s. After the collapse of the USSR and most socialist nations in the early 90s, North Korea is one of the last countries with cold war era-socialism still in power.
Juche is based on 3 main principles: Political independence, Economic self-sustenance and Self-reliance in defence. The first one means staying independent from imperialist nations like Japan as well as independence from other socialist countries. Juche wants no country to rule over another one since that would be a form of oppression which Il-sung opposed because of his experiences in the Japanese empire.
The second one means as little import or trade with the outside world as possible, this is to make no country reliant on another one, all trade must be made between equals and the last one means having enough guns to defend themselves against the USA even without soviet or Chinese support, they would of course practically enter alliances and call upon their allies, but this was seen as the last possible step, the country was supposed to defend itself
In Juche, the Worker’s party of Korea is supposed to educate the people in the Juche idea and thereby in socialism. Then the party and state will wither away as the people reach communism. This may seem similar to Marxism Leninism which similarly wants a party to rule and educate the people.
But Juche doesn’t like Leninism. It criticizes Leninists for being elitist and called the communist party of the USSR “divorced from the masses”. There is no mechanism by which the Workers Party of Korea makes sure that THEY stay in touch with the masses but hey, in theory that sounds nice, listening to the people and all.
Juche also has a philosophical approach which says that human beings are the most important things in the world and that individual freedom and independence are the most important things anyone should have. This is because unlike anything else in the universe humans possess consciousness which according to Juche makes them, and the expression of their consciousness, the most important thing there is.
And because states are just collections of people, the same principle is applied to countries. This means the freedom of a country shall never be reduced or subverted by any other country, which is why the 3 main principles are what they are. To keep the state independent of outside forces.
This video is an explanation of the North Korean Ideology called Juche. I explain the theory and praxis of the ideology as well as the philosophical background and main principles.
Patreon: patreon.com/viki1999
Subreddit: reddit.com/r/viki1999
Twitter: twitter.com/Viki1999Yt
E-Mail Address: viki1999mail@gmail.com
Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:54 Praxis
2:29 Theory
5:37 Criticism
8:33 Conclusion/Outro
Links:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juche
marxists.org/glossary/terms/j/u.htm
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc-fZHutM0BHn7pFHd189R9cGX4Adp2Ik
Transcript:
Hello everybody! What is Juche? That is the question surprisingly many people spammed in my comment section, so we are answering it. To oversimplify Juche is a socialist ideology which advocates for self-reliance and isolation from other countries. It’s also the state ideology of North Korea which…is kinda controversial among leftists.
We are really into fighting about whether Juche is leftist at all. With Marxist Leninist aka tankie people saying yes and libertarian leftists like anarcho-communists saying no. In this video I will judge the theoretical ideology of Juche and focus less on how well those principles are implemented in North Korea nowadays. Both for the sake of time and for the sake of not getting hated by both of these groups.
Juche is a Korean ideology, and it is specific to the conditions in Korea, a hundred years ago. According to north Korean sources Juche was first developed by Kim Il-sung in the 1930s. During that time Korea was colonized by Japan and he was a member of the Anti-Imperialist Youth League.
TLDR eventually japan starts and then loses a war with the USA, and the USSR also declares war at the last minute. They divide the Japanese empire up like this. They couldn’t decide what to do with Korea, so they split it in two and decided to deal with it later. They haven’t dealt with it yet.
Kim Il-sung was a big boy socialist so Stalin made him and his party, the leaders of the new Democratic People’s Republic of Korea aka North Korea. Il-sung found himself in a political and material reality which was not suited to other forms of socialism which had been tried in other places. A Marxist Leninist or syndicalist style revolution would not have worked considering the education standards and geopolitical situation in North Korea at the time.
So, as every socialist leader does, he made his own ideology specific to the Korean conditions. Juche has been in control of North Korea since the 50s. After the collapse of the USSR and most socialist nations in the early 90s, North Korea is one of the last countries with cold war era-socialism still in power.
Juche is based on 3 main principles: Political independence, Economic self-sustenance and Self-reliance in defence. The first one means staying independent from imperialist nations like Japan as well as independence from other socialist countries. Juche wants no country to rule over another one since that would be a form of oppression which Il-sung opposed because of his experiences in the Japanese empire.
The second one means as little import or trade with the outside world as possible, this is to make no country reliant on another one, all trade must be made between equals and the last one means having enough guns to defend themselves against the USA even without soviet or Chinese support, they would of course practically enter alliances and call upon their allies, but this was seen as the last possible step, the country was supposed to defend itself
In Juche, the Worker’s party of Korea is supposed to educate the people in the Juche idea and thereby in socialism. Then the party and state will wither away as the people reach communism. This may seem similar to Marxism Leninism which similarly wants a party to rule and educate the people.
But Juche doesn’t like Leninism. It criticizes Leninists for being elitist and called the communist party of the USSR “divorced from the masses”. There is no mechanism by which the Workers Party of Korea makes sure that THEY stay in touch with the masses but hey, in theory that sounds nice, listening to the people and all.
Juche also has a philosophical approach which says that human beings are the most important things in the world and that individual freedom and independence are the most important things anyone should have. This is because unlike anything else in the universe humans possess consciousness which according to Juche makes them, and the expression of their consciousness, the most important thing there is.
And because states are just collections of people, the same principle is applied to countries. This means the freedom of a country shall never be reduced or subverted by any other country, which is why the 3 main principles are what they are. To keep the state independent of outside forces.
