North Korean House of Cards

within the leadership in the mid-1950s with the unveiling of a Marxist-Leninist
model for self-reliance called Juche. This became the principal ideology for politics,
economics, national defense, and foreign policy. It is still the foundation of the
regime today. The Juche ideology served as a catalyst among North Koreans, whose
history is rife with dominance and subjugation by other nations. This ideology
became a rallying cry for nationalism and isolationism, allowing Kim both to
distance himself from Moscow and Beijing and to undercut Party members more
closely aligned with those two patron nations. By 1956, Kim achieved unchallenged
dominance in the KWP, tightly controlling all aspects of both politics and society. 255
This was further solidifed in the late 1960s and early 1970s with the “Suryong
Monolithic System of Guidance,” 256 which was designed to lay the groundwork for
the transfer of power from Kim Il-sung to Kim Jong-il. 257
As was made clear by North Korean propaganda, “The Suryong is an
impeccable brain of the living body, the masses can be endowed with their life in
exchange for their loyalty to him, and the Party is the nerve center of that living
body.” 258 This statement was clearly manifested during the Kim Il-sung era, when
most policymaking at the national level was realized through official decision-making
institutions that met on a fairly regular basis. At the top was the Party’s Politburo,
255 Cheong Seong-Chang, “Stalinism and Kimilsungism: A Comparative Analysis of Ideology
and Power,” op. cit. Kim Il-sung solidified his control over his own partisan faction by purging the
Kapsan faction members in 1967. This spelled the end of all opposition within the Party to Kim’s cult
of personality. Afterwards, Party bureaucrats of the Manchurian guerrilla group, who were loyal to Kim
Il-sung, took leadership positions. North Korean politics stabilized thereafter.
256 Ibid. The Monolithic Guidance System was created in the late 1960s by Kim Yong-ju, Kim
Il-sung’s younger brother and then Director of the KWP OGD. It was then adopted and modified in the
1970s by Kim Jong-il. North Koreans were called upon “to unconditionally accept the instructions of the
Great Leader, and to act in full accordance with his will.” Kim Il-sung also demanded that Party members
“fight to the end to protect to the death the authority of the ‘party center’ [Kim Jong-il].”
257 Kang Mi-Jin, “NK Adds Kim Jong Il to ‘Ten Principles,’” Daily NK, August 9, 2013, http://
www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?num=10828&cataId=nk01500. Central to the Monolithic Guidance
System is the “Ten Principles for the Establishment of the One-Ideology System.” The Ten Principles,
which were formulated in the 1970s by Kim Jong-il as guidelines for Kim family rule, are defined in
North Korean textbooks as “The ideological system by which the whole Party and people is firmly armed
with the revolutionary ideology of the Suryong and united solidly around him, carrying out the revolutionary
battle and construction battle under the sole leadership of the Suryong.” Until recently, they were
based on the thoughts and deeds of Kim Il-sung. According to defector reports, Kim Jong-il’s name has
been added to the description of this leadership structure. The second principle, which used to state that
“We must honor the Great Leader comrade Kim Il-sung with all our loyalty” has been amended to state,
“We must honor the Great Leader comrade Kim Il-sung and General Kim Jong-il with all our loyalty.”
This is most likely part of the regime’s attempts to create the ideological foundation for Kim Jong-un’s
rule by creating the bridge between him and his grandfather.
258 Masayuki Suzuki, “Bukanui Sahoejeongchijeok Saengmyeongcheron” [The Theory of a
Socio-political Organism in North Korea] in Han-Sik Park, ed., Bukanui Silsanggwa Jeonmang [North
Korea in a Changing World Order] (Seoul: Donghwa, 1991).
Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
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