So it's NOT self-reliance in the sense of one country doing everything itself with no imports/exports. That's the biggest misconception. It's more about self-determination.
There's this study course for Westerners, which gets a middling review from me: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=OymYKXvrCF0
For primary sources, read On The Juche Idea: https://archive.org/details/jucheidea
Korean socialist ideology emphasising self reliance, I don't know much beyond reading a few articles and wiki but it seems to be like ' socialism in one country ' taken further but there a lot of stuff specific to the Korean context and has obviously developed due to the unique situation of the DPRK
Juche is a majesty, a vibe of pure angelic light. Juche is the feeling of warmth in the morning, as you lay tucked into your blankets, while the cold world awaits to attack you. Juche is love. Juche is the future.
Juche is also a style of socialism largely built around self-reliance at a country level due to embargoes imposed on the peaceful nation of DPRK by the western imperialists (specifically :amerikkka: ) in order to punish them for not coming to heel. As an underdog, Juche requires a non-toxic, somewhat nationalistic vibe in order to remain united against external oppression. I forget the word for it, but the leadership is exalted as a symbol of that unity in much the same way a sports team would raise up a beloved mascot.
if you want a real answer: an attempt by kim il sung to cement legitimacy after purging the rest of the communist party of Marxists while maintaining a centrist "middle road" between china and the ussr during the cold war. It's essentially an incredibly crude form of Marxist humanism which asserts the primacy of human will as the motive force of history as opposed to materialism and generally posits political formations as created by human subjectivity. For example with Kim Il Sung rejecting stalin's marxist theory of the nation state and suggestion that the Koreans nation existed before capitalism during I believe the goryeo period (its been like years since I read anything about juche) because korean existed as a language group and there was a self-identification of korean that existed in the peninsula. If you wanted to apply a similar standard you could say that ancient greece was a nation which.... let's not go there.
In essence juche goes as a form of political logic: 1)Man is the motive force of history 2)Nation is the creation of his will and subjectivity 3)Therefore, the nation must be self-sufficient and reliant
People are gonna dunk of me for this explanation but none of them have attempted to read a 100 page primer on the juche idea like I have. Please, attempt to read any of these books that are at least over 60 pages and tell me if you can find anything that can't be summed up in a few paragraphs max.
http://www.korean-books.com.kp/en/search/?page=book&keyword=juche
Thread on Misunderstandings of Juche
Kim Il Sung purged the rest of the communist party (perhaps you mean WPK, since the merger of the communist and New Democratic parties occurred in 1946) of Marxists? Do you have evidence of this?
“It’s essentially an incredibly crude form of Marxist humanism which asserts the primacy of human will as the motive force of history as opposed to materialism and generally posits political formations as created by human subjectivity.”
This is incorrect: “The Juche philosophy and human philosophy have fundamentally different viewpoints of man. The former regards man as an independent, creative and conscious social being, whereas advocates of the latter deny man’s social character and consider him to be a being dominated by his instinct, a powerless being isolated from the world. The bourgeois human philosophy which negates a scientific understanding of the world and revolutionary changes, inspires sorrow, pessimism and ultra-egoism. We must clearly be conscious of the reactionary nature of the bourgeois human philosophy and correctly understand the originality of the Juche philosophy which raised and resolved the human question from a new angle.”
“But some people say that the world is centered on man or that all 4 changes and development in the material world are caused by man; and they think that this is the new outlook of the Juche philosophy which distinguishes it from preceding philosophies. It has already been established by materialistic dialectic that the world consists of material, not consciousness or ideas, and that it moves, changes and develops in accordance with its own laws, not by any supernatural force. It is an undeniable fact that the world is, in essence, a material entity, a material integrity, and that it moves, changes and develops in accordance with its inherent laws. The Juche philosophy answered a new question—who is the master of the world and what is the motive force for its transformation. It elucidated a new idea of the world that nature and society are dominated and transformed by man, and thus fulfilled brilliantly the philosophical task of our time when the popular masses are masters of their own destiny and history. As you see, the Juche philosophy made it clear that man is the master and dominator of the world; it does not assert that the material world itself is centered on man. What the Juche philosophy also expounds is that man is the transformer of the world and that the world is reshaped by man, not that all changes in the world are brought about by man. The understanding that the material world is centered on man, or that all changes in the world are caused by him, is due to lack of understanding of the Juche philosophy. Man’s position and role must not be misinterpreted in explaining the outlook on the world elucidated by the Juche philosophy.” (Ibid.)
The idea that the Juche idea regards man and his behavior as independent of material forces, or that it is opposed to materialism and does not regard it as the force in shifting conditions, is fundamentally a misunderstanding; that you have read something and not understood it is by no means an accomplishment.
“As I have said on many occasions, it is wrong to think that the Juche idea was authored without any relations with the preceding revolutionary ideologies. President Kim Il Sung, in his early years, closely studied the history of the liberation struggles of the Korean and other world peoples to say nothing of Marxist-Leninist classics and was well versed in all ideologies and cultures of all ages, even Buddhism, Confucianism and Christianity. In the course of applying in a creative way the revolutionary theories of Marxism-Leninism to the Korean revolution, he authored the Juche idea. So the Juche idea should be understood as a new idea that has inherited and developed Marxism-Leninism to suit the reality of our country and meet the requirements of the new era. Our officials, however, are giving an impression as if the Juche idea were an idea related to our nation only as they have failed to prove correctly that the Juche idea has originality and continuity in relationship with Marxism. Those, who claim to have certain knowledge of Marxism, think without thorough theoretical basis that the Juche idea stresses only national independence. Why should we be misunderstood by others that we are advocating nationalism when we created the wonderful Juche idea of universal importance that has inherited and developed the progressive ideologies of mankind?”
This means that Juche is a development of Marxism-Leninism which is applied to the conditions of the Korean revolution. It “suits[s] the reality of [the DPRK]”. However, it is not an idea completely related to the nation since as stated it has roots in Marxism-Leninism which is not an idea that developed firstly within Korea.
