Is North Korea a ‘Stalinist’ state?
The term ‘Stalinism’ is highly loaded and is most frequently employed not as a descriptive term but as an insult. The DPRK political system is based on the Juche Idea, an original theory developed by the late President Kim Il Sung stressing national self-reliance and development according to the unique characteristics of individual nations. ‘Stalinism,’ on the other hand, was articulated as a universalistic political ideology. The DPRK is indeed a socialist state, meaning that all the means of production are socially owned. However, the central implication of the ‘Stalinist’ accusation–simply that the DPRK is a dictatorship–is inaccurate. Korea is a socialist democracy guaranteeing its citizens the full range of individual liberties and rights provided by many liberal regimes, and more.
