Appendix A: What is Juche?

Juche is, in layman's terms, a derivation of Marxism-Leninism with Maoist influences. It was first introduced by Kim Il-Sung at the Meeting of Leading Personnel of the Young Communist League and the Anti-Imperialist Youth League held at Kalun in June 1930.

It is primarily concerned with the laws of the social movement and the development of socialist ideology under the socialist socio-economic system. Marxism-Leninism, as well as Dialectical and Historical Materialism, are assumed by this ideology, so you should have some knowledge about these topics if you want to learn about the Juche Idea.

Kim Jong-Il talks about the foundations of Marxism-Leninism inherent in the Korean revolutionary philosophies and ideologies in On Correctly Understanding the Originality of Kimilsungism:

Kimilsungism was founded and has been developed in the course of safeguarding and embodying the ideological and theoretical achievements of Marxism-Leninism. The Juche Idea itself is an idea discovered in the process of the revolutionary struggle waged under the banner of Marxism-Leninism; it is an idea which has opposed all trends of idealism and metaphysics and strictly adhered to the materialistic and dialectic stand.

The revolutionary theory of Kimilsungism is also a theory which was founded and enriched in the course of protecting the revolutionary quintessence of Marxist-Leninist theory from bourgeois and opportunist theories and creatively applying and developing it in line with the requirements of the revolutionary practice of our times.

The Juche Idea is concerned primarily with elucidating the attributes of man which drive social movement. These are defined as independence, creativity, and consciousness, which complement and require each other. These attributes are explained bit by bit, shown to differentiate man from animals through his conscious, creative activity which frees him from the fetters of nature and society by advancing in the progressive struggle for communism.

If you want to talk about the economic or social policy of the DPRK, the concept you're looking for is primarily Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism, not the Juche Idea.

A primary point of the Juche Idea is that each revolution must be carried out by its own people, rather than by a foreign power attempting to dominate the younger revolution towards its own interests.

Kim Jong-Il talks about this in On the Juche Idea:

The revolution in each country should be carried out responsibly by its own people, the masters, in an independent manner, and in a creative way suitable to its specific conditions. Independence and creativeness are the inherent requirements of a revolutionary movement, the communist movement.

Kim Il-Sung is not a god. He has never been such a thing, nor is he regarded by anyone in the country as such. In all my discussions with people from the DPRK, I have heard great respect for Kim Il-Sung. You should understand who he is as a historical actor to understand perhaps why people regard him as important.

Kim Il-Sung was a Communist, a Marxist, and a fierce guerrilla fighter against the brutal Japanese colonial domination over Korea. His entire life, from a young child to the end of his days, was involved in the anti-Imperialist struggle.

He founded the Workers Party of Korea, enacted land reforms to crush the landlord class, dissolved the petty-bourgeoisie class, formed a state and cooperative-owned economy, and established a firm vanguard party which held no patience for infiltrators or revisionists. He commanded the Fatherland Liberation War and maintained Korea's sovereignty and independence from the US Imperialists.

There's so much problematic about viewing the DPRK's struggle against Imperialism as "a myriad series of woes", let alone taking what I assume is a reference to their subjective poverty in comparison to the capitalist puppet nations and attempting to attribute that to perceived failings of ideology rather than as the result of the material conditions of the struggle.

Source: Original comment on :reddit-logo:

Fun fact: The term "juche" was originally coined by Korean anarchists and the revolution itself included many anarchist comrades. Anarchists are one of the leftist tendencies still present in the DPRK to this day.