Is North Korea a theocracy?

[Dr Mindbender]

Many people say the DPRK is either genuinely socialist or state capitalist but I'm not sure it's either. The whole personality cult mystifies me, its almost as though the following behind the 'great leader' has degenerated into a religious cult and that the man himself has acheived god like status.

Seriously, watching some of the documentaries coming out of that place i really do think it qualifies as a religion.

So rather than socialism could this be classed as a theocracy?

[BIG BROTHER]

Well acording to them, their official policy is something called "Juhe" which is a state sponsored religion. So I gues you could clasify them as a theocracy. But that's just me.

[mykittyhasaboner]

"Juche" replaced marxism-lennism as their state ideology 1972, and what it is is something like this: (source wikipedia)

The people must have independence (chajusong) in thought and politics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics), economic self-sufficiency (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-sufficiency), and self-reliance in defense.
Policy must reflect the will and aspirations of the masses and employ them fully in revolution and construction.
Methods of revolution and construction must be suitable to the situation of the country.
The most important work of revolution and construction is molding people ideologically as communists and mobilizing them to constructive action.i dont know about theocracy, sounds more like revisionism to me.

[BIG BROTHER]

"Juche" replaced marxism-lennism as their state ideology 1972, and what it is is something like this: (source wikipedia)

The people must have independence (chajusong) in thought and politics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics), economic self-sufficiency (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-sufficiency), and self-reliance in defense.
Policy must reflect the will and aspirations of the masses and employ them fully in revolution and construction.
Methods of revolution and construction must be suitable to the situation of the country.
The most important work of revolution and construction is molding people ideologically as communists and mobilizing them to constructive action.i dont know about theocracy, sounds more like revisionism to me.

Yes, but you have to add the cult of personality, and how the people are supposed to be loyal to their ruler.

[Prairie Fire]

Yes, but you have to add the cult of personality, and how the people are supposed to be loyal to their ruler.


Well then, the USA is also a theocracy. :D

Certainly Korea has a more prominent cult of persynality, which is probably a defect of their revisionism, so I think it is that they are a revisionist state, not a theocratic one.

On the subject of the cult of persynality in general, read this link:
http://www.mltranslations.org/Britain/StalinBB.htm

[non-vio-resist]

Well acording to them, their official policy is something called "Juhe" which is a state sponsored religion. So I gues you could clasify them as a theocracy. But that's just me.


couldn't one classify North Korea as Stalinist? If there are some Stalinists out there, please enlighten me why it is or is not.

[Kropotkin Has a Posse]

We can't seriously believe that what the North Korean government tells us Juche is is the same as what they actually put into practice.

[BIG BROTHER]

Well then, the USA is also a theocracy. :D

Certainly Korea has a more prominent cult of persynality, which is probably a defect of their revisionism, so I think it is that they are a revisionist state, not a theocratic one.

On the subject of the cult of persynality in general, read this link:
http://www.mltranslations.org/Britain/StalinBB.htm

why would you say that?:confused: I mean there's consumerisim and patriotism in the US, but don't tell me there's a cult of personality of george bush.

[BIG BROTHER]

couldn't one classify North Korea as Stalinist? If there are some Stalinists out there, please enlighten me why it is or is not.

The way they handle politics and the goverment is somewhat similiar to Stalin's, but I wouldn't clasify North korea as Stalinist because Stalinisn is supposed to be the continuation of Marxist-Lennism and North korea's ideology is juche now.

[mykittyhasaboner]

why would you say that?:confused: I mean there's consumerisim and patriotism in the US, but don't tell me there's a cult of personality of george bush. theres a cult of personality for every US president, every candidate for that matter. the "elections" themselves is just a clash between different cults of personality. take barack obama for example, hes currently protrayed as the man whos going to "change" america for the good and fix all of its problems. nwo for george bush theres not much that can be called "cult of personality", considering all the criticism he gets. but he was "elected" twice, which means some people had to be propagated and convinced that this man was a good person for the position.

[Andres Marcos]

why would you say that?:confused: I mean there's consumerisim and patriotism in the US, but don't tell me there's a cult of personality of george bush.

heh there is on the right(just check out Fox News documentary on George Bush I know about it since I saw it made fun of on the Daily Show) also there is a ridiculous cult of Reagan that the right has. I remember I was scanning the tube once and I saw Laura Ingraham on the O'Relly Factor who was saying literally something like a prayer or something going like ''Reagan taught us that we can do anything if we have hope in our country" @[email protected]

[Wanted Man]

No, it's not a theocracy. Its defining policies are revisionist, focused on individuals and rooted in a certain amount of mysticism. That, by itself, is enough. Why slap random labels on it to make it look more 'bad'? We might as well ask ourselves if it is fascist, stalinist, autocratic, totalitarian, despotic, monarchic, aristocratic, feudal, kleptocratic, oligarchic, etc.

In any case, there is no real theocracy to speak of. There is no state religion, no church replacing or dominating the government, no recognition of policies by divine grace, no theonomy, etc. Compare to the laws of, say, Iran or Saudi Arabia.

[chimx]

Seriously, watching some of the documentaries coming out of that place i really do think it qualifies as a religion.

The documentaries you see are coming out of Pyongyang, a city which is populated by supporters of Kim. Foreign media is not allowed to leave that area and film anything outside of Pyongyang and Pyongyang's pro-Kim population

In reality there is a massive refugee problem on the DPRK/Chinese border, with refugees regularly trying to swim across to China and being shot by North Korean military.

Popular uprising has been successfully stifled with concentration camps for the families of criminals. Speaking against the regime or doing anti-government work can lead to your mother, father, sisters, or children being forced into these camps.

So no, it is not a theocracy, just regular ol' despotism.

[spartan]

America's cult of personallity has spread to its puppet regimes such as Kosovo which has billboards of Bill Clinton and statues of Ronald Reagan!:ohmy:
http://www.american.edu/dlublin/images/kosovo/clinton.jpg

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/images/2007/05/24/reuserbiakosovo_.jpg

[Schrödinger's Cat]

couldn't one classify North Korea as Stalinist? If there are some Stalinists out there, please enlighten me why it is or is not.

Stalinist is a senseless term. Seeing as how defenders of Stalin reject the belief that Stalin 1.) was a dictator 2.) killed millions and 2.) even created the cult of personality, I doubt Stalin "apologists" would support North Korea. They would probably call it revisionist, as exemplified by the philosophy of Juche.

[RHIZOMES]

I'd call it an absolute monarchy shoddily disguised as a "worker's state".

[BobKKKindle$]

So rather than socialism could this be classed as a theocracy?

"Theocracy" is not a mode of production - it is a system of government that is capable of existing as a superstructure for many economic systems. Capitalist Iran is a theocracy, and so was the Islamic Caliphate in the 7th Century.

North Korea is a deformed workers state, as resources are state property, but a ruling stratum has been able to secure political control.

[non-vio-resist]

Stalinist is a senseless term. Seeing as how defenders of Stalin reject the belief that Stalin 1.) was a dictator 2.) killed millions and 2.) even created the cult of personality, I doubt Stalin "apologists" would support North Korea. They would probably call it revisionist, as exemplified by the philosophy of Juche.

I agree with you on Stalin. I, myself, am not a supporter of the ideologies he stood behind, ie, labor camps, socialism in one state, brutality, dictatorship, etc. I was just curious as to what leftists who do classify themselves as Stalinists or are sympathetic to his ideologies think about North Korea. I see some parallels for sure.

I actually was unaware that there were so many people sympathetic to Stalin until I checked out revleft:lol:! It's pretty fucking ridiculous, but to each their own.

[Comrade Wolfie's Very Nearly Banned Adventures]

North Korea is a shit hole for one. I would say its a Monarcy/Mititary dictatorship

[Awful Reality]

I dont know about theocracy, sounds more like revisionism to me.

Um... an anarchist complaining about revisionism?

[nvm]

The official story of N.Korea's ex-leader's death was that angels came down from the sky and picked him up etc etc , so the official propaganda is that their leaders are "saints" or something.
I would classify it as a revisionist-theocratic state.