Juche

Borrowed from Korean 주체(主體) (juche, “self-reliance”, literally “subject”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒuːt͡ʃeɪ/

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• Rhymes: -uːt͡ʃeɪ

Juche (uncountable)

1. The core component of Kimilsungism–Kimjongilism, the state ideology of North Korea.
   • 1982 [1955 December 28], Kim Il-Sung, “On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing Juche in Ideological Work”, in Kim Il-Sung – Works, volume 9, translation of original in Korean, pages 402-403:

     What is Juche in our Party's ideological work? What are we doing? We are not engaged in any other country's revolution, but precisely in the Korean revolution. This, the Korean revolution, constitutes Juche in the ideological work of our Party.

   • 2008, Don Baker, Korean Spirituality, University of Hawaii Press, →ISBN, page 147:

     Despite its rejection of theism and its political origins, there are several reasons for labeling Juche ideology a form of spirituality. […] According to Juche teachings, human beings only exist within societies.

   • 2011 [2010], B.R. Myers, The Cleanest Race. How North Koreans See Themselves—And Why It Matters, Brooklyn, New York: Melville House, →ISBN, pages 46-47:

     Though Juche Thought is enshrined in the constitution as one of the country's guiding principles, the regime has never shown any indication of subscribing to its universal-humanist bromides: “man is the master of all things,” “people are born with creativity and autonomy,” etc. I do not mean to imply that if an ideology is not lived up to, it is ipso facto a sham. […] But Juche is not even professed in earnest, and no wonder; its central notion of the masses' mastery of their fate runs counter to the sacrosanct notion of a uniquely vulnerable child race in the Leader's protective care. […] The pseudo-doctrine of Juche continues to serve its purpose all the same. It enables the regime to lionize Kim Il Sung as a great thinker, provides an impressive label for whatever policies it considers expedient, and prevents dissidents from judging policy on the government's own ostensible terms.

   • 2025, Fyodor Tertitskiy, Accidental Tyrant. The Life of Kim Il-Sung, London: C. Hurst & Co., →ISBN, page 161:

     Beginning in 1966, North Korea's internal and external propaganda started to promote the word [Juche] with extreme vigour. The problem was that Kim Il-sung never received a higher education and was not particularly well versed in any branch of philosophy, including Marxism. For him, Juche was little more than a means to assert North Korea's independence from Moscow. And the system of total obedience to the Leader he was creating prevented his underlings in the ideological departments from reformulating it into a more intelligible form. Thus, when it came to explaining what ‘Juche’ thought actually is, North Korean ideologues limited themselves to just one sentence: ‘Man is the master of all things’, repeated and rephrased over and over.

• Kimilsungism
• Kimjongilism

• Cheju