| Chapter 1: | The Culture and Ideology of the DPRK |
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mostly under the leadership of Park Chung Hee, who installed a series of economic growth plans.
Juche as Nationalist Ideology (1960s to 1970s)
By the end of the 1960s, North Korea had become a stable regime, devoid of any immediate source of opposition against Kim’s authority. His leadership could not be challenged because it was steadily gaining a charismatic quality. By this time almost all political enemies had been eliminated from leadership circles. Furthermore, the economy had fully recovered from the aftermath of the Korean War. It may sound unbelievable, but the North Korean economy in this period was superior to that of South Korea.
What Pyongyang needed at that time was a persuasive ideology with which to legitimize Kim’s charismatic leadership and to demonstrate ideological superiority to the South. It may be generalized that once a regime is established and stability is secured, the next step that the regime must take is to expand its legitimacy through political education. This stage of development may be termed political integration, during which the ruling elite attempts to further the basis of regime legitimacy by introducing an official political ideology. In many newly independent countries, the flowering of nationalism grows into this official ideology; North Korea is not an exception.
It is this transition of circumstances that prompted the accentuation of nationalism as the cornerstone of juche. That South Korea was led by Syngman Rhee, who was educated in and had been a long-term resident of the United States, indicated a strong American influence on the Rhee regime. This provided Kim Il Sung with the necessary ammunition to condemn the South for being shamelessly antinationalistic and pathetically subject to foreign domination. In contrast, the North was in a position to declare a policy of equidistance vis-à-vis its communist allies and to join the nonalignment movement. Pyongyang managed to establish juche institutes in several nonaligned countries, including India. This