The Juche Ideology of North Korea

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Ideology can be looked at different perspectives of the way people think about it. Some people think that ideology is bad, while some people think it is good. Ideology takes a very harmful way in Christianity; Pope Francis explains to Christians that ideology drives away the church and the people. In his perspective of mind, ideology is a “serious illness.”(Dolan) In some other places such as North Korea, ideology is a “dangerous belief system.” North Koreans Ideology is most commonly referred as “Juche,” this ideology is harmful to people because most people would like to praise people who do good things, but in North Korea people have to pray to a dictator who is capable of killing, torturing, and murdering his own people.

Juche has two parts; “Ju” means “master” or “main element,” while “che” means to be “whole.” (James) North Korea started to use Juche in December 6, 1967 when Kim Il Sung used Juche for a speech.(Ilpyong) Juche consists of philosophy, loyalty, and devotion towards leaders such as Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jong Eun. This ideology is also like a tool where these leaders can put in ideas on how to rule North Korea. North Koreans must show respect by hanging their portraits of the leaders to their “best walls,” they also must clean these portraits every day, carelessness of the portraits will be considered as a capital crime which could result in concentration camps.(Juche Religion)

North Koreans show respect to their leaders by bowing to them every day, people who save the portraits from burning homes are praised across the country. North Koreans pray to Kim IL Sung every day and this is routine activity, they also have to thank him for any achievements they have done over the years. Based on the Ju...

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