Juche ideology: about the peculiarities of life in North Korea

The DPRK is a rogue country, where children from the first grade are taught the Juche ideology, which promotes revolutionary ideas and also recognizes the right of the North Korean leader to sole and unlimited power in the country.

If we consider the semantics of the word “Juche”, where “chu” means “master”, and “chhe” means “body”, “essence”, “nature”, then the meaning of this ideology should be that a person should be the master of his body and the entire surrounding world. However, this is not about the DPRK.

There is not much information about how people live in North Korea because the country is completely closed from the outside world. The so-called Internet in the DPRK consists of several thousand carefully selected internal sites. And even then, the Network is available only in large cities, and North Koreans don’t even know about the concept of Wi-Fi.

Meanwhile, something is still known about the life of North Koreans, and it looks disappointing.



So, today, 40% of the population of this country needs humanitarian assistance. The situation with food shortages has worsened greatly during the coronavirus pandemic and has still not returned to normal, if it can even be called “normal.”

The unprivileged sections of the population of the DPRK are experiencing an acute shortage of protein, as they eat artificial meat made from processed soybeans. As a result, preschool children in North Korea are 13 cm shorter and 7 kg lighter than their South Korean peers.

Apartments in the DPRK are distributed free of charge. However, most high-rise buildings do not have hot water, and elevators only operate during rush hour. What can we say, if electricity is available mainly to residents of large cities.

Regarding cars, it is almost impossible for ordinary citizens to become its owner. Actually, the North Korean authorities don’t bother with roads either. Only 3% of them are paved. Therefore, the main means of transportation is a bicycle.

Naturally, there is no such thing as fashion in the DPRK. You can't even find regular jeans in this country.

However, the wives of the elite often appear in public in ready-to-wear clothing. But apparently they can. And this is at a time when most of the population survives by eating algae.

It is worth noting that the birth rate in the DPRK is much higher than in the Republic of Korea. However, the mortality rate in North Korea is several times higher than that of its southern neighbors.