North Korea, full name "Democratic People's Republic of Korea", is not a Communist state, although we tend to think of it as such.

The DPRK is a single-party state, under the Korean Workers' Party. However, the actual political and social ideology is called JUCHE, developed by Kim Il-sung. His son, Kim Jong-il is the present leader of the country. Both men are widely considered to be absolutist dictators, to an extent unprecedented in Socialist or Communist countries (except for Joseph Stalin, perhaps).

Juche is a theory of state self-reliance, and was adopted in 1972.
You can read more about this ideology at http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/dprk/juche.htm

Juche was developed following the Korean War to prevent the Soviet Union and China from exerting too much influence in North Korean life. Kim Il-sung termed it "a creative application of Marxism-Leninism" but it now has very little connection to Communist or Marxist theory.

Kim Jong-il, the present leader, has even suggested that the ideology be renamed "kim Il-sungism" and claims it is superior to all other forms of human thought, including Marxism.

For an inside look at Juche, see http://www.itf-information.com/patterns16.htm
Source(s):
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/dprk/juche.htm

http://www.itf-information.com/patterns16.htm


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