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Hwang Jang-yeop was born in 1923 in North Korea and studied at Kim Il-sung University. He later studied Marxist-Leninist Philosophy at the Moscow State University in the Soviet Union, earning a PhD in Philosophy. Returning to North Korea at the end of 1953, he served as Kim Il-sung's theoretical secretary and Kim Jong-il's personal teacher. Also he served as deputy head of the propaganda and agitation department, president of Kim Il-sung Univ., and secretary for international affairs of the Workers' Party of Korea. In particular, he established Juche ideology, which forms the basis of North Korean society, and supported the establishment of Juche ideology research institutes in various countries to spread it to the 'Third World'.
After the death of Kim Il-sung in 1994, when the 'Arduous March' began due to the deepening food shortage in North Korea, Hwang Jang-yeop proposed a Chinese-style economic opening to Kim Jong-il. However, Kim Jong-il, who was dissatisfied with Hwang Jang-yeop, took this opportunity to exclude him from power.
Hwang Jang-yop realized that Kim Jong-il and the North Korean regime were in an irredeemable state, with no chance of recovery. After visiting Japan to attend a seminar in February 1997, he applied for asylum at the South Korean embassy in Beijing, China, on his way back to North Korea. The fact that North Korea's key power class and the designer of the Juche Ideology gave up on North Korea caused a great repercussion around the world. And after Hwang Jang-yeop entered South Korea on April 20, 1997, he criticized Kim Jong-il and the North Korean regime that they altered the Juche Ideology for the worship of the leader and dictatorship.
It is the reality of North Korea as he revealed in one of his books, 'The Truth and Falsehood in North Korea'(1999).
1) Deification of Kim Il-sung
The North Korean regime teaches people that Kim Il-sung was a victorious leader who overthrew Japanese imperialism and completed the historic feat of national liberation, overthrowing US imperialism and ensuring victory in the Korean War.
Of course, it is true that Kim Il-sung waged a partisan struggle, but it was nothing more than a local small-unit activity. And it is also true that he started the Korean war with the support of Soviet Union and China, and he was counterattacked by the United States and other allied forces and retreated to the Yalu River, facing complete destruction. Kim Il-sung barely regained its original territory due to China. In other words, it was the Soviet Union that defeated Japan, and China defeated the US.
2) Kim Jong-il's false propaganda brainwashed the people and paralyzed normal thinking
North Korea propagates that Kim Il-sung liberated North Korea by conducting an anti-Japanese armed struggle domestically based on Mt. Paektu and Kim Jong-il was born in 1942 in a secret camp in 'Holy Mt. Paektu'. It is totally false. After seizing real power in 1974, Kim Jong-il greatly inflated Kim Il-sung's anti-Japanese struggle to justify the power succession against socialism. And he blinded the public through various kinds of propaganda.
Kim Jong-il confiscated all memoirs of other anti-Japanese partisans and mobilized writers to write novels praising Kim Il-sung for all residents to read. Eventually, North Koreans came to recognize these novels as fact. Based on this, 'With the Century', a memoir of Kim Il-sung written by fiction writers from the Propaganda and Agitation Department, was created.
During the Japanese colonial era, Kim Il-sung operated an anti-Japanese partisan movement in Manchuria under the guidance of the Chinese Communist Party, but after moving to the Soviet Union at the end of 1940 due to poor working conditions, he served as a Soviet Army captain in the 88th Special Correctional Brigade of the Far East Army. Kim Jong-il was born in 1942, when Kim Il-sung was serving in the Soviet Army, and his childhood name was 'Yura', in other words, Georgy in Russian.
Soviet forces declared war on Japan on August 8, 1945, and entered Pyongyang on August 26. According to Stalin's instructions, none of the North Korean partisans, including Kim Il-sung, who belonged to the 88th Special Correctional Brigade, participated in the liberation of North Korea. Kim Il-sung returned to Pyongyang in September 1945.
3) The Development of the Juche Ideology and its Distortion
At first, Kim Il-sung mentioned that "It is important to be 'Juchee'(self-reliance) in order to create Marxism-Leninism suitable for North Korea's reality" without the term 'Juche ideology'. However, it was just pretext and in reality, he wanted to reject the policy change of the Soviet Union, the socialist suzerain that criticized Stalin and the cult of personality. Also he planed to strengthen dictatorship without outside interference. In addition, after the Cultural Revolution in China, the worship of the leader based on the teachings of Kim Il-sung on May 25, 1967 was strengthened in order to intensify the class struggle in North Korea. In 1970, Hwang Jang-yeop set out to develop human-centered philosophy principles, leaving class position to prevent the deterioration of Juche ideology with the permission of Kim Il-sung.
Theorists such as Hwang Jang-yeop cited the popular masses the driving force for social movements. This was to deviate from the views of classists who regarded the subject of social movement as class. For reference, Kim Il-sung also explained the definition of the Juche ideology to the Japanese media in 1972, saying, "The masters of revolution and construction are the popular masses, and the power to propel revolution and construction is also in the popular masses." North Korean rulers can not deny the Marxist proposition that 'the popular masses are the masters of the state and society'. How ever abandoning their class stance meant that Workers' Party of Korea gives up its leadership and "Great Leader" theory.
So, North Korean rulers combined Marxist totalitarianism with Confucian feudal ideology that remained in North Korea and distorted the Juche ideology as follows. 1) The interests of the popular masses are represented by the working class. 2) It is the Workers' Party that defends the interests of the working class. 3) The "Great Leader" ideally defends the interests of the Workers' Party. In accordance with this method, the proposition that "the subject of social movement is the popular masses" was transformed into "the position of the masses is the position of the Great Leader." In other words, the premise that "social interests take precedence over individual interests" is combined with the idea that the leader, not a member of society, represents the interests of the whole society. As a result, the "Great Leader" theory emerged that the Great Leader, the owner of society, must be worshiped unconditionally and the popular masses must accept individual dictatorship.
According to North Korea's Juche Ideology, the Great Leader is the brain of the socio-political organism, and the popular masses are like the hands and feet that are directed by the brain. Also, since socio-political life is bestowed by the Great Leader, the popular masses are taught that everyone should be loyal to the Great Leader and easily lay down their life for the Great Leader's joy and satisfaction.
4) Three aspects of Juche Ideology spreading in North Korea
The Juche ideology propagated by North Korean rulers is 1) the Great Leader theory combining totalitarianism-classism-feudalism 2) Proletarian dictatorship following Marxism-Leninism 3) Distorted anthropocentric ideology. These three cannot be fused together, but the proletarian dictatorship and distorted anthropocentric ideology were forcibly subjugated to the Great Leader theory.
North Korean authorities forcibly instill only the Great Leader theory into the popular masses in North Korea. On the other hand, they advertise that "Juche ideology is North Korea's Marxism aimed at class struggle" on the meeting with people from socialist countries and communist parties abroad, However, they insist that "Juche ideology overcomes the limitations of Marxism and it aims for human-centered socialism" to foreign intellectuals who acknowledge the flaws of Marxism and seek alternatives.
5) The distorted Juche ideology destroyed the foundation of North Korea and the lives of its people.
The North Korean rulers deceived the people and plunged North Korea into abyss by advocating the Juche ideology as follows. First, the North Korean authorities claimed that the Juche ideology is revolutionary ideology and used it as a means to enslave the popular masses. The socialist revolution is a struggle of the exploited masses against the ruling class. The North Korean authorities claim that long ago the capitalist class was liquidated and a socialist paradise built by workers and peasants. It is the Great Leader and the authorities that are now exploiting the masses in North Korea. However, the North Korean leadership still insists on socialist revolution. Alto they claim that North Korea must liberate South Korea from capitalists and US colonial rule. However, South Korea is incomparably ahead of North Korea in political freedom, economic affluence, cultural influence and etc.
In addition, Kim Jong-il transformed Juche ideology into thorough egoism. Kim Jong-il, who inherited power from his father without any election or verification process, treats everything in the country, including politics, economy, culture, and society, as his own property. Kim Jong-il monopolized the business of earning foreign currency and luxuriated in alcohol and entertainment. He also frequently intervened in the Cabinet's budget and it shaked the very foundation of the planned economy. In addition, media outlets and cultural and artistic institutions were all directly subordinated to the Workers' Party and degenerated into means of idolizing Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. Residents must wear portrait badges of Kim Il-sung on their clothes, and carefully enshrine portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il in every households. Anyone who violates these rules face severe punishment.
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