A KOREAN SOCIALISM WITHOUT SOCIALISM? – THE SPIRITUAL SOURCES OF THE JUCHE IDEA
A KOREAN SOCIALISM WITHOUT SOCIALISM? – THE SPIRITUAL SOURCES OF THE JUCHE IDEA

Summary/Abstract: This paper aims to recount the ideological and spiritual sources of the Juche Idea, the official state ideology of North Korea, known formally as Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). To do so, the author first analyzes which sources the DPRK claims itself to be the foundation of Juche and in a second step, he will compare the research of different authors who detected essential influences on Juche within DPRK propaganda texts, speeches, official documents, etc. The author of the paper argues that by putting all these research and observations together, the puzzle on which main sources shaped Juche could be solved.

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