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Self-description: Kim Il Sung designed the Juche idea, which means self-reliance. Today Kim Jong Il continues his father's work.
Comments: Since Korea has faced Great Power intervention from Japan, China, Russia and the United $tates throughout history, it is not surprising that the Juche idea arose in Korea. In most respects, it's not distinguishable from Mao's ideas about self-reliance, but it is clear that the question is closer to a cardinal question in the eyes of the northern Koreans and others following the Juche idea.
MIM has to agree that even when it comes to the universal aspects and truths of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism--those things that are true for all countries and those things which communists in all countries should know--even in the cases of universal truths, comrades in each country should try to investigate why they are the truth for themselves. Kim Il Sung did not believe it was a good idea to be a communist by copying leaders or by "flunkeyism." For both Kim and Mao, problems arose with comrades so swept up with the prestige of the Moscow communists that they simply parroted whatever they learned in Moscow without being able to integrate the principles of scientific socialism with concrete conditions.
Whenever a party gains momentum and prestige, it is bound to attract flunkeyists. These flunkeyists are a considerable source of irritation and damage in the international communist movement.
Since MIM has conducted its own thorough investigation of the class structure of the imperialist countries and has done its own investigations of historical and analytical documents concerning the Soviet Union and China and since MIM has spoken with the people of those countries as well, MIM could be said to have implemented the Juche idea.
On the other hand, north Korea has taken a counterrevolutionary role against the movement in Peru according to the PCP, by offering counterinsurgency help. Above all, the north Koreans have failed to launch a movement of the people in class struggle against the enemy in the party. Even despite the collapse of the Soviet bloc and the obvious fact that capitalist restoration was accomplished by the bourgeoisie in the party, still Kim Il Sung and son Kim Jong Il have not put forward the necessary conclusions about the universal aspects of Maoism, how Mao was correct in his polemics. It was wrong to straddle Mao and Deng when the Cultural Revolution broke out, and today it is even more wrong.
Kim Il Sung did hold firm for armed struggle against Khruschev revisionism, and for this reason alone, he can be seen as a centrist in the struggle against revisionism. For his part, he considered Mao's Cultural Revolution theses ultraleft while those of Deng were rightist, but Kim rarely said anything direct on the subjects. The failure to openly polemicize on these subjects at this point in history is a major disappointment to the international proletariat in its own right. The collapse of the Soviet Union is not something to pass over lightly, just because Korea can follow its own road. MIM does not support the Juche idea if it means withdrawal from polemics over universal questions of scientific socialism. While we agree no COMINTERN should order comrades what to do in each concrete situation of the world, comrades still have the obligation to face squarely all the scientific questions that arise outside their country's borders, especially any question related to the restoration of capitalism, social-imperialism and the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Historically, Korean comrades are afraid of the divisions that arise in their own country surrounded by Great Powers, and it is not surprising that Kim Il Sung emphasized unity. We oppose unity at the expense of crucial scientific polemics. The people pay in blood for unity that covers over essential problems, such as those that caused the restoration of capitalism around the world. Medium and small nations which ignore divisive questions from fear of provoking larger neighbors will find their science lagging behind and will thus contribute to the problem of revisionism. If the Juche idea becomes an excuse to import post-modernist cultural relativist ideas and other narrow empiricist subjectivism into the international communist movement, then Juche must be abandoned. Marxism has always been a follow-through to the Enlightenment, a systematic idea with an all-conquering attitude toward what science can grasp.
Click here then search for Kim Il Sung name in MIM Notes 91 obituary
Look here under K for Kim Il Sung
A pro-Kim view emphasizing how Kim struggled against revisionism
A central web page for the study of Juche