From nuclear bombs to karaoke, North Korea’s Juche ideology infuses all aspects of life. But what does it mean?

Juche is even used to count the passing years: this year is Juche 108, because it’s been 108 years since national founder Kim Il-sung was born

Although it’s been around for decades, some observers believe Juche has been embraced in recent years with renewed vigour by Kim Jong-un

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Performers hold up cards to form a portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during a mass games performance. Photo: AP

Published: 7:00am, 1 Oct 2019Updated: 12:21pm, 1 Oct 2019

It’s just a single word, but it’s hard to miss in North Korea. It’s splashed across countless propaganda signs, seeded through dozens of state media reports, at the beating heart of emotional pop songs and on the lips of the earnest guides who show off the grand monuments built in its honour.

The word is Juche (pronounced ju-chay), and while it’s technically a political ideology, it can seem more like a religion in its ability to inspire devotion among North Koreans and its ubiquity as a symbol of state power. Though the usual English translation is “self-reliance”, the concept flummoxes many outsiders.

Pyongyang uses the term liberally, including in previous years at the United Nations, where a North Korean official will speak Monday at the annual General Assembly. The nation calls nuclear bombs the “treasured sword” of Juche. Newly unveiled weapons fire “Juche shells”. The August test of a new rocket launcher heralded the “rapid development of the Juche-oriented defence industry”.

At a Pyongyang karaoke parlour, visitors can choose to belt out at least two Juche-related titles: Juche Iron Is the Best and The Way of Juche Is the Way of Korea.

Juche is even used to count the passing years: This year is Juche 108, because it’s been 108 years since national founder Kim Il-sung was born.

Although it’s been around for decades, some observers believe Juche has been embraced in recent years with renewed vigour by leader Kim Jong-un, the third generation of his family to rule North Korea, as he steps out with growing confidence onto the world stage for a series of high-stakes summits over his nuclear weapons programme and the international sanctions crippling his economy.

North Korea has now officially “enshrined ‘self-reliance and self-development’” as the new ideological theme of the Kim Jong-un era, taking the place of his father Kim Jong-il’s military-first policies, said Joshua Pollack, a North Korea expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and a close reader of its propaganda.