"Mostly Propaganda in Nature:" Kim Il Sung, the Juche Ideology, and ...

Mitchell Lerner
NKIDP Working Paper #3 December 2010
ready as never before." 78 His success also appeared in the economic realm. The Five-Year Plan
established in 1957 actually achieved its targets in four years. Especially significant, particularly
in the sense that it offered clear signs of Juche, was the growth of local industry, which was
producing an estimated 100% of the nation’s soft drinks, wine, and beer, along with over 90% of
the bean paste and soy sauce. 79 And while definitive economic statistics about North Korea are
obviously hard to come by, most evidence points to an impressive growth rate, significant
personal wealth advances, and increased educational opportunities, all of which dwarfed the
comparable rates of its Southern rival.
Overall, North Korea seemed to be entering the 1960s poised for continued success. In
September 1961, Kim informed the Fourth Party Conference that, "The historic revolutionary
tasks of completing socialist transformation in town and country, and building the foundation of
socialism have been triumphantly carried out." 80 He predicted that by the middle of the decade
his people would have "A rich life, living in tile-roofed houses, eating rice and much meat, and
wearing fine clothes . . . all aspects of our people's life will become bountiful, modern, and more
enjoyable." 81 He also celebrated the unity of the Korean Workers Party; "Never before in the
history of the Korean communist movement has the Party's ideology and organization been as
strong as today," he informed Conference delegates. And he left little doubt that Juche was the
glue that was holding it all together. "There have never been such close ties between the party
78
"Memorandum of Conversation between Soviet Ambassador to North Korea Vasily Moskovsky and Kim Il
Sung," November 14, 1962, CWIHP Virtual Archive, North Korea in the Cold War.
79
Hy-Sang Lee, North Korea (Praeger, 2001), p. 34.
80
From "Report on the Work of the Central Committee to the Fourth Congress o f the Workers Party of Korea,"
September 11, 1961, in Kim, On Juche in our Revolution, volume 1, p. 226.
81 From "Report on the Work of the Central Committee to the Fourth Congress of the Workers Party of Korea,"
September 11, 1961, in Kim, On Juche in our Revolution, volume 1, p. 305-311.
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