JUCHE: The Speeches and Writings of Kim Il Sung

by Marshal Kim Il Sung ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 3, 1972

Marshal Kim II Sung, legendary hero of the People's Democratic Republic of Korea and all Third Worlders, heretofore an enigma to the West, now comes to us in his own speeches, party writings, and interviews, revolving around the theme of Juche (pronounced choo che), i.e., political, military, and economic self-sufficiency for the nation. Li Yuk-sa's introduction -- a bowdlerized package tour of Korean history -- reveals that the omniscient Marshal formulated Juche in 1928, positing that the Korean revolution must be made without outside help. Statistics, anecdotal testimonials, and scarcely veiled threats herald the miraculous Juche force. Though China and the Soviet Union are never mentioned and despite the Marshal's assurances to the contrary, it is hard to believe that North Korea would have consolidated a revolution without the Soviet occupation, that it would have survived a war against the U.S. without Chinese aid, or for that matter that it could have achieved economic recovery and development without Sino-Soviet assistance. For those pernicious deviationists who still remember and unrepentantly quote the classics on such things as the international division of labor, Kim offers to cure their ""flunkeyist ideas"" with creative doses of Juche. What little theory appears is in the form of pedantic instructions and pronouncements which are never discussed, much less proved. The foreword by Eldridge Cleaver is an ode to Juche which has neither eloquence nor credibility.

Pub Date: March 3, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Grossman

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1972

Categories: NONFICTION