ABSTRACT
The previous chapter has examined certain Marxist features of North Korean human rights thinking and suggested that the particular form of human rights in the DPRK is as much a continuation of Korea’s cultural and historical context as it is a legacy of North Korea’s more recent Marxist legacy. The rights thinking of Marxist states and that of the Confucian tradition do indeed have many aspects in common: both focus on the rigid social structure, collective interests over individual human rights, the prioritisation of socio-economic rights over individual freedom, and citizens’ duties before rights. This chapter examines the characteristics of human rights in Juche Ideology (the North Korean offi cial ideology, Juche sasang) and shows how these rights elements in Juche have been refl ected in domestic policies. The fi rst section of this chapter gives an overview of Juche and how it has developed. It is important to study the origins of Juche before moving onto the main characteristics of Juche’s rights since it combines all the historical, political, and cultural aspects of the ideational roots in the DPRK. Juche is the key to understanding North Korean mentality and its development. It includes four key elements: post-colonial nationalism, Marxism-Leninism, Confucian monarchism, and some religious aspects. Based on the key features of Juche, the rest of the chapter more specifi cally deals with the main characteristics of Juche’s human rights which include: the divine concept of rights and the role of leader, the sovereign right of man and the nation, the right of man as a social being, the right to basic living standards, and citizens’ duties. Each discourse contains elements of human rights in theory and practice, which are certainly different from the Western liberal tradition but understandable within the country’s historical, political, and cultural contexts. From a constructive perspective, the formation of Juche’s rights was a core ideational formation process of North Korean state identities and interests starting from the mid-1950s. The country was undergoing a Sino-Soviet ideological confl ict internationally and a series of national economic plans were faced with political challenges domestically. Thus, it is no surprise that Juche’s rights focused on the sovereign rights of man and the nation, collective interests over individual human rights, the primary concern for the right to basic living standards, duties of citizens including young students, and most importantly the role of
strong leadership in leading the country and protecting the rights of people in the DPRK.
