ABSTRACT
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) very existence was owed to a foreign power, the Soviet Union, and it was spared certain extinction during the Korean War by yet another neighboring power, the People's Republic of China. The DPRK was faced with the problem of rationalizing its ideological emphasis on revolutionary self-sufficiency. The narrow construction of the concept was consistent with the DPRK's immediate desire to be free from the domineering hands of the Soviet Union and China yet consistent with North Korea's need for external economic support. In the early 1970s, the DPRK was able to generate far too little export earnings, with the result that in its effort to modernize its industrial plant it accumulated large foreign debts and was unable to meet payments. North Korea undoubtedly will continue to maintain its revolutionary relations and to use military assistance on a modest but selective basis to further its foreign policy objectives abroad.
