So I have not read any of Kim Jong-il’s elucidation on the concept of Juche. I have read a lot of Kim Il-sung’s speeches on the topic. I may get some of this wrong or be close but not quite there, if you know what I mean.

Juche is more than an economic or societal code, it is more than a line on internationalism vs revolutionary nationalism, it is more than a Korean development of Marxist-Leninist thought – it is all of these things and more. It should also be noted that Kim Il-sung did not rectify the Juche idea on his own, but it was a cooperative effort by the leadership of the Worker’s Party of Korea beginning with when they were members of the CPC.

Juche, I believe, at its core is an attempt to rectify perceived (I make no personal claim as to whether these were truly errors or historical circumstance demanded them) rightist and leftist ideological errors among other communist movements at the time. The CPC, contemporary with the WPK’s ideological rectification and even before the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, focused very heavily on facets of the Chinese national spirit, eliminating feudal culture and embracing “red culture” – basically focusing on the collective and individual mind of revolutionaries and citizens in order to create a populace that was passionate about building socialism, often to the vast detriment of proper implementation of social construction, sustainable land redistribution, industrialization and production – there was more of a focus on creating revolutionaries who were brilliant in the facet of being revolutionary, than in creating a generation of people who could sustainably continue to reproduce said revolution for centuries down the line. This was rectified later, but this was an error of the CPC that was compounded during ultra-leftist errors during the GPCR, the Great Leap, etc.

Contrarily, in the USSR, history necessitated that revolutionary education go to the wayside in order to create generations of people able to build revolution, as in produce it, but be unable to reproduce it as ideological understanding was lacking in favor of production. This is understandable due to the war with Germany, but still something that will come back to bite the USSR in the ass. It is important to note that one of the first speeches Kim Il-sung gave mentioning Juche by name occured in 1955, 2 years after the death of Stalin and the rightist coup d’etat by Khruschev. Khruschev’s leadership saw a growing geriatocracy in the CPSU, with ideologically correct Old Guard Bolsheviks being executed and imprisoned and a further dispassioned youth who did not seek to continually reproduce socialism in the USSR, simply exist within it and allow geriatric communist party leadership to rule as they saw fit. Belief in the party was high, but aspirations to join it and work to continue the revolutionary project were not.

Another important note here: Kim Il-sung, the mad lad, is (I think) the only person remembered by history to have been part of at one point the CPSU, the CPC, and the WPK. He witnessed the theoretical and ideological shortcomings of all parties, but was also able to rectify with his comrades all of the best and most correct parts, at least in the WPK’s view. Central aspects of the Juche ideology were/are:

• Independence of the Socialist project in Korea from commandism from both the Chinese line and the Soviet line. If Korean Socialism is to survive anything and everything thrown at it, it must have a distinctly Korean character and be cherished by the Korean people as a Korean idea, and not a foreign Western, Chinese or Soviet one.
• Self-reliance of Korean industry. Korea cannot and should not rely on the Soviet Union and China to produce its goods and feed its people. Revolutionary governments are a fickle thing, and ideological breaks, national collapse, and conditional aid may break the Korean socialist project if it is not self-reliant.
• Revolutionary education includes a focus on love for the national spirit, the Korean people, and on an ability to reproduce socialism in Korea ideologically as well as materially through the creation of philosopher-proletarian-professionals, true Jacks of all Trades, who can create the material conditions for socialism while also combatting foreign and internal counter-revolutionary forces. Every generation of Koreans will know how to reproduce socialism both ideologically, materially, and will be committed to the WPK and Korean socialism.
• Humans are the masters of nature. Humans create and control the material. We are the universe’s eyes and we will shape the world as we see fit, we will take control and create socialism come hell or high water. There are no chaotic disasters or coincidences or accidents or famines or droughts that humanity cannot overcome by mastering the tools we have created and by exerting mastery over nature.
• There will be an attempt to rectify individual perceptions of the world with the collective understanding of the material in this regard. Collective understanding of the material and ideological are both paramount facets of safeguarding socialism.

Like I said, this is what I gleamed from reading Kim Il-sung. I may be off on a few points or extrapolating based on an individualized understanding of certain concepts, but I think I am mostly correct.

Another important note, the ideology known in the West as “Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism” is simply Marxism-Leninism with Korean Characteristics. It is Marxism-Leninism as applied to Korea and thusly is not universally applicable. Juche, on the other hand, is more universal (though I would argue not totally) especially with regards to imperialized nations as well as those suffering from settler-colonization. I have not been able to find them on social media any longer (partially because I’ve ditched social media), but there are a few indigenous North American groups who practice and study Juche extensively, as well as some small groups in eastern Asia who wish to see it applied to their respective nations.

To conclude Juche is not Marxism-Leninism with Korean characteristics per se. It is not an economic model or a spiritual one or an industrial one or a productive one, it is all of the above. Individuals practice Juche but so do collectives. It is the systematic creation of a comradely, intelligent people armed with the weapons of science, revolutionary nationalism, Marxism-Leninism and a love for socialism and humanity. It’s an ideal and an aspiration that attempts to rectify the dichotomy between the self and the other and between historically opposing facets within socialist projects, namely production and ideology. Personally, I think it’s quite lovely.