Juche, which is often interpreted as an ideology of independence or self-reliance, was developed by the founder of the DPRK, Kim Il Sung, in the era of the Korean nation’s struggle against Japanese colonialism.
In 1982 President Kim Jong Il wrote down his main thoughts on Juche in a book. However, Juche was widely recognized among Korean founding fathers during the struggling era.
Initially, Juche was seen as an ideology of struggle influenced by Marxism. However, in subsequent developments, Juche succeeded in growing into a distinctive ideology in the Korean independence struggle. In principle, this ideology teaches that every human being is the master of his own destiny, as well as the master of its revolution.
The core teachings of Juche are in line with the efforts we have been doing in order to promote ideas of Bung Karno’s nationality and sovereignty through the Bung Karno teaching curriculum (Ajaran Bung Karno/ABK) at Bung Karno University (UBK).
I understand that the Juche ideology has proven to make the DPRK nation and state survive in the midst of the onslaught of the enemy both in the era of the independence revolution and in the current nekolim era.
This is strong evidence that Juche was born from the experience of Korean society facing the oppression of other nations.
We realize that geographically DPRK is surrounded by other nations that are aggressive and have territorial ambitions, namely China, Russia and Japan. Strategic thinking and steps are always needed to enable teh DPRK to maintain independence. Juche is an ideology for achieving and maintaining independence.
Humans are, in principle, social beings who are at the same time individual and do not want to live under the oppression of other humans.
In the context of the struggle against oppression and colonialism, this principle gave birth to self-help politics.
Bung Karno in the past said that ideology like Juche was a philosophische grondslag.
The same is true for Pancasila which is extracted from the life experiences of the Indonesian people under the oppression of other nations.
So that in this way we do not become a nation that depends our fate on other nations. The fate of our nation will be determined by our struggle to free ourselves from various forms of colonialism and oppression.
DR (HC) Hj. Rachmawati Soekarnoputri
Founder of Soekarno Foundation for Education
Founder of Indonesia-Korea Friendship Society
Teguh Santosa 