The Ideology and Politics of North Korea, the DPRK

The U.S. and Western media has purposefully and deliberately portrayed the DPRK, or North Korea, as a tyrannical and oppressive state dictated by an irrational man of questionable sanity. However, like most propaganda pieces spewed through the bourgeois media, closer examination and analysis is the only way to sort through the lies and mistruths in order to ascertain any semblance of the truth. The objective of this essay is to provide an alternative description of the overall political atmosphere of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and its leading party. Though this only touches on some of the important issues, I highly recommend researching more on your own regarding this complex and fascinating country, its ideals, its politics, its society, and culture.

The political atmosphere of the DPRK is centralized around the ideas of Juche thought. Originally, the Workers Party of Korea was aligned with orthodox Marxist-Leninist thought. However, as they began to apply Marxism-Leninism in their country, the material conditions presented the necessity for the advancement of a new, specifically Korean revolution in the ideological principles guiding both the Party itself and society. Hence, in the 1970's, President Kim Il Sung and the Workers Party of Korea developed the Juche idea. Essentially, Juche transcends traditional Marxism-Leninism and can best be viewed as representing a new stage in the development of socialism particular to the conditions of Korea and its people.