To: geode00 who wrote (194072 ) 7/31/2006 1:26:30 PM From: Hawkmoon Read Replies (1) | Respond to Listen.. the N. Koreans can call it "Juche" or whatever they want, just as Marxism was called "Maoism" in China (only being that it was peasant, and not worker, based).The North Korean government has promulgated Juche as a political alternative to traditional religion. The doctrine advocates a strong nationalist propaganda basis and is fundamentally opposed to Christianity and Buddhism, the two largest religions on the Korean peninsula. Juche theoreticians have, however, incorporated religious ideas into the state ideology. According to government figures, Juche is the largest political religion in North Korea. The public practice of all other religions is overseen and subject to heavy surveillance by the state.In 1972 Juche replaced so-called Marxism-Leninism in the country's constitution as the official state ideology. Commentators outside North Korea often equate Juche with Stalinism and call North Korea's government Stalinist. North Korea indeed upholds Stalin's theory of "socialism in one country". But the government no longer admits any connection between Juche and the ideas of Stalin.Although the influence of Mao is also not formally acknowledged, North Korean ideologists and speechwriters began to openly use Maoist ideas in the 1950s and 1960s, under the influence of the Chinese Army's five-year occupation of the North after the Korean War, as well as during the Sino-Soviet split when Kim Il Sung sided with Mao against Soviet de-Stalinization. Kim had been a guerrilla partisan in the Chinese Communist Party from about 1931-1941. en.wikipedia.org Restored as leader of North Korea, Kim continued purging his rivals, particularly the former southern Korean Communist leadership, and embarked on the reconstruction of the country devastated by the war. He launched a five-year national economic plan to establish a Soviet-style command economy, with all industry owned by the state and all agriculture collectivised. The economy was based on heavy industry, particularly arms production. North Korea retained huge armed forces to defend the 1953 ceasefire line. en.wikipedia.org There has never been a communist country, there has never been a free market...
