In the response towards the main argument which is does Juche is a crucial factor that

explains DPRK's survival, a case study must be prepared to response towards the argument.

First and foremost, the survival in this context here means the ways of North Korea gained

their political power in order to rule its own country. The concept of political power in

governance is the capacity of an individual or organisation to affect the behaviour and

attitudes of a country's citizens. This authority may be legal, bestowed upon an organisation

by the people of a nation. Illegitimate political authority is power that has been taken by force

or through unfair means. The sort of ideology known as Juche is one that places a significant

emphasis not just on the person, the nation, and state identity but also on the historical

materialist principles that are at the core of Marxism and Leninism. In other words, North

Korea used the ideology of Juche as their fundamental philosophy to guide their nation to

become one of the powerful countries in the world. Juche’s ideology has been practiced for

years, however the effectiveness of this ideology remains unclear for certain individual.

Therefore, there are a few case studies can be look into in order for us to measure the

effectiveness of Juche’s ideology towards its state survival by looking at the historical and

modern context of Juche.

According to Tom Dixon, in its historical context, Juche’s ideology helps North Korea to

maintain it state survival by applying the ideology of self-reliance. Self-reliance here means

that North Korea become solely independent to survive for years without any help from any

countries in terms of its economic, social and military. North Korea shared the same

continent as its neighbour which is South Korea and throughout the years, we have notice that

both of them remained to have a conflict even though they reach their national independence.

Rationally, it seems impossible for North Korea to survive during the war without the nation,

however the existence of Juche’s ideology resolute the main cause. An occasional crisis has

arisen as a result of ongoing border tensions with the Republic of Korea, as demonstrated by
the capsizing of the South Korean warship Cheonan, as well as Kim Jong Il's aspirations to

build nuclear weapons and passing on leadership of the country to a third generation, Kim

Jong Un. Concern among members of the international community has not subsided despite

the DPRK's determination on maintaining its efforts to construct long-range rockets and

ultimately gain the needed level of miniaturisation to produce a nuclear-armed payload for

these weapons. This is a major consideration in the more aggressive approach taken by the

South Korean government of Lee Myung-Bak, whose pre-election pledge to end the

"Sunshine Policy" that generated sustainable inter-Korean relations in the period after Kim Il

Sung has been popular in South Korea. The "Sunshine Policy" was responsible for creating

stable within and between relations in the period after Kim Il Sung. The majority of deaths

caused by the DPRK have cut themselves away from the other of the internationally

globalized world. In spite of North Korea's emphasis on keeping its borders almost entirely

sealed off to outsiders, it is abundantly obvious that North Korean politics continue to play an

important role on the global stage. Thus, it can be said that “self-reliance” of Juche’s give

DPRK the motivation to control the population by developing their own nuclear weapon and

not relying to other nation. In the modern context, United Nations Commission of Inquiry

(UN-COI) findings on the state of human rights in North Korea demonstrate that the Kim

Jong Un dictatorship does not tolerate any kind of political dissent, including free speech,

free press, free trade unions, or organised political opposition. To earn respect on the global

stage and secure nuclear weapons, the Juche doctrine prioritises military modernization.

Playing on fears about the West's reaction to its nuclear weapons, North Korea engages in

psychological warfare to politically survive in the world.

By following the fundamental of Juche’s ideology, to survive in this modern era, a country

must have the capability in order to ensure that the citizen did not heavy influence to other

nation as external influence may threaten the national sovereignty. Many modern onlookers
have the wrong impression about the heyday of sovereignty. There has always been debate

over whether or not the traditional notions of sovereignty should be upheld. For the vast

majority of their histories, only a select few states, notably including the United States have

enjoyed sovereignty, authority, and official recognition. Many less-powerful states'

governments have been pervasively meddled with, and even more-powerful ones are not

immune to foreign influence. In the modern context, people assume globalisation is vital, but

they don't know what it involves. Globalization is a multidimensional phenomenon with

economic, social, political, cultural, and geographical repercussions. Radice (n.d.) states that

"globalisation is a significant topic among geographers, sociologists, economists, and

political scientists, and is examined within every paradigm, from neoclassical economics to

postmodern social theory to realist international relations theory to Marxism”. Hence, DPRK

seems that it is important issue that need to be tackle in order for them to keep their people

under influenced. Therefore, under Kim Il Sung's leadership, the North Korean government

instituted a Marxist–Leninist program (Yoo, Y. O., 2001). During this time, the Soviet Union

and Marxist-Leninist thought were the dominant forces in the educational system as it fit the

ideology of DPRK. It was during the third period that Juche, North Korea's national ideology,

entered the curriculum. Midway through the 1950s, Juche was first presented, although its

influence was felt most strongly in the 1960s. Based on what H. C. Kim and D. K. Kim wrote

in 2005 that Juche promoted "national identity in ideology, independence or autonomy in

politics, self-reliance in the economy, and self-defense in national security." Juche was built

on Marxism-Leninism and Confucianism (Foley, 2011), but it is more like Confucianism than

Marxism-Leninism (Cumings, 2005). Teachings of socialism and revolutionary progress are

emphasised heavily in the North Korean curriculum. Education's primary purpose is to instil

a love of work and a sense of pride in one's country through a strong sense of patriotism and

independence. The system of education in North Korea is used to spread ideas of nationalism
and collectivism to hinder any external influence that can denotes the spirit of nationalism

within DPRK’s citizen. For example, a journalist named Diana Sawyer stated in 2004, “if we

asked the citizen of North Korea about their feelings toward the nation, they tend to said that

their country is the most beautiful country in the world”. From the statement given by the

child, it can be concluded that Juche’s ideology success to shape the mindset of the children

whereby they will say only good things in regards to their nation. Moreover, in the modern

world, North Korea also control the mass media. In other words, the mass medias are under

the control of the government and it only televised program that has the approval of the

supreme leader. Hence, it can be stated that by controlling the social development of the

citizen (media and education) not only externally survive in this modern era, but also able to

internally shape the ideology of the people by applying the concept of Juche and nationalism

to hinder any influence that could threaten their national sovereignty.

To conclude, from two cases study that has been explained, we found that Juche ideology is

one of the critical factors that explains DPRK’ state survival. Ideology is an overarching

concern of any political ideology is the question of how power should be distributed and to

what ends authority should be put. Some political parties have a very strong commitment to a

particular ideology such as DPRK. The ideology of Juche’s help DPRK to survive in terms of

military equipment whereby the ideology of Juche’s promotes the idea of self-reliance. Thus,

it shapes the government of DPRK to develop its own weapon to survive through out World

War 2 until now. Even though the action taken by DPRK seems cruel and violating the

human rights, but using the historical context, it is a must to use coercive power to gain

influence from other nation including the usage of nuclear weapon. Apart from that, we also

conclude that Juche’s ideology helps DPRK to survive and maintaining it peace from external

influence. By applying Juche ideology into its education and controlling mass media, it does

help DPRK’s survival as the element of nationalism and collectivism vested by every citizen.
These core values are important as it becoming the fundamental value that could shape

someone behaviour on the early stages of their educational system. In addition, the value of

patriotism and nationalism keeping a positive image of one's nation in the minds of people

from other countries is one way to demonstrate patriotism. A true patriot will never engage in

behaviour that could bring disrepute to their nation in the eyes of others. They will never

speak poorly of their nation in front of strangers or criticise the leadership of his country.

When they interact with people from other countries, they will do everything in their power

to present his homeland in the best possible light and this what has been practice by the

citizen of DPRK.