N. Korea dumps both communism and socialism

The person who created the term "socialism" is French writer Saint-Simon. He used socialism to express his opposition to individualism. When Karl Marx used the term communism to oppose capitalism later, socialism of the past was downplayed as utopian communism. Today’s communism refers to Marxian-Leninism. In Marxian-Leninism, socialism only means the period of transitioning to communism.

The constitution of the North Korean Workers’ Party, which was adopted after its first Supreme People’s Congress in 1946, contains neither the word communism nor socialism. The goal was the construction of the prosperous, strong, democratic, independent country of Korea. Only after the third Supreme People’s Congress of the party in 1956, which took place for the first time after establishing the North Korean regime, the two words, communism and socialism, appeared in the party constitution along with Marxian-Leninism. After the fifth Supreme People’s Congress in 1970, juche ideology of North Korea’s founder Kim Il Sung appeared in the party constitution, but it was only used in conjunction with Marxian-Leninism.

Since the collapse of Soviet communism in 1990, Marxian-Leninism and communism became cumbersome. Kim Jong Il deleted "the construction of Marxian-Leninism, communist state from the party constitution" at the third meeting of party leaders in 2010. At the fourth meeting of party leaders in 2012 after taking power, Kim Jong Un adopted Kim Il Sung – Kim Jong Il-ism as a new vision. Now, Pyongyang seems to be finding it cumbersome to use the word socialism. The Socialist Rodong Youth Alliance, which is dubbed "Sarocheong" in the North, marks the 70th anniversary this year. The organization, which changed the official name to the "Kim Il Sung Socialism Youth Alliance" in 1996, has recently changed its name again to the "Kim Il Sung – Kim Il Sung-ism Youth Alliance."

North Korea may claim that both communism and socialism are ideologies from overseas, and that the North is approaching toward complete juche (self-determination, self-reliance) ideology that does not rely on any external ideology, but such a phenomenon in fact only represents deepening ideological isolation of the North. Pyongyang had promoted that Kim Il Sung's juche ideology was creative adaptation of Marxian-Leninism to meet the reality of North Korea, but Kim Il Sung – Kim Jong Il-ism has no such an element. With Kim Il Sung – Kim Il Sung-ism, the North cannot even form alliance of values with other countries. Pyongyang’s stubborn obsession with nuclear weapons and missiles are only military expression‎ of such sense of isolation.