The Juche idea of Korea
Marx reformulated in the context of the colonial situation
The November 21 Webinar on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, sponsored by the International Manifesto Group, provided a most informative introduction to the DPRK, very much needed, given the lack of study and reflection, even among leftists, of the Korean socialist project, and given the major distortions in the West concerning the project. My November 16 commentary provided a summary and review of the Webinar.
The panelists spoke of the Juche idea, the central concept of Korean socialist ideology. They made reference to a socialist manifesto written by Kim Jong Il, “On the Juche Idea: Treatise Sent to the National Seminar on the Juche Idea Held to Mark the 70th Birthday of the Great Leader Comrade Kim Il Sung, March 31, 1982.” In today’s commentary, I review the historic March 31, 1982 document written by Kim Jong Il.
Kim maintains that the communist revolution began as a working-class struggle in the nineteenth cent…