The Tower of Juche - May-June Newsletter

31 Korea Prayer Points for May June PDF 21KB

Only eleven chapters into the Bible, we read about the sheer arrogance of mankind in the story of the men who tried to build the tower of Babel. Their intent? To “make a name for [themselves]” (Ge 11:4 [i] ). Their efforts were cut short when the Lord reminded them that He is the only One worthy of praise.

Fast-forward to the present time and we find yet another tower honoring man-centered efforts, the Tower of Juche in the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Considered a must-see on tours to the DPRK’s capital city of Pyongyang, the needle-like Tower of Juche pierces the sky from the eastern bank of the Taedong River, opposite Kim Il-Sung Square. At 170 meters tall, it is boasted as the highest stone tower in the world. The tower was built in 1982 to commemorate founder Kim Il-Sung’s 70th birthday and is thus made of 25,550 blocks, one for each day of Kim Il-Sung’s life (365 x 70). Though the city often experiences power shortages, the tower is kept brightly lit day and night. [ii] Only one word is visible from the tower at a distance. The word, written on the tower’s side in huge Korean script, is: juche.

Juche was first introduced in 1955 by Kim Il-sung as the state’s official ideology—the ideology by which all activities in the DPRK are governed. According to Kim Il-sung, juche is described as an “independent stance of rejecting dependence on others and of using one’s own powers, believing in one’s own strength and displaying the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance.” [iii]

The word juche is derived from two characters: ju (pronounced like the “ju” in “juniper”), which means “master” (ju is also a word Korean Christians use to refer to the Lord), and che (pronounced like the “che” in “cherry”), which means “body.” Combined, the two characters form the word juche, which means “master of one’s self.” [iv] Also known as Kim Il-sungism (Kim Il-sung juui in Korean) since 1974 [v] , juche was said to have been created as a response to past political and economic dependence. Juche is also used as a is the ruling ideology in the DPRK. An article in the March 1980 state-sponsored journal, Kunloja (“The Worker”), states, “Within the Party none but the leader Kim Il-Sung’s revolutionary thought, the juche ideology, prevails, and there is no room for any hodgepodge thought contrary to it.” [vi]

Juche is said to be able to provide the answer to any questions that arise in building a communist state. [vii] “No difficulty is surmountable nor is any fortress impregnable for us when our party leads the people with the ever-victorious juche-oriented strategy…” Kim Il-sung proclaimed in a 1992 speech. [viii] With juche as a basis, the goals of the DPRK are to have an independent foreign policy, a self-sufficient economy, and a self-reliant national defense. [ix]

Ironically, the DPRK is far from being a self-sustaining state; it actually relies heavily on foreign aid to provide for its citizens. And even with the aid, a third of the children in the DPRK are chronically malnourished, and between a third and half of the population face a daily struggle to find enough to eat. [x] In the famine of the mid-1990s, as many as three million people were estimated to have died. [xi]

All DPRK citizens are schooled on juche throughout their lives and led to believe unswervingly in the greatness of their state, Kim Il-sung and his son, Kim Jong-il. [xii] Christian prayer guides for the DPRK often ask people to pray that the DPRK would repent of juche. By some standards, juche is considered the tenth largest religion in the world, with 19 million adherents (the population of the DPRK), which is more than, for example, the number of adherents to Judaism (14 million). [xiii]

In my own journey of praying for the DPRK, I remember joining a prayer campaign and being asked to pray that the DPRK would repent of its self-reliant pride and recognize its need for God. And I remember, too, being suddenly struck one day by the conviction that it would be hypocritical for me to pray for the repentance of the DPRK without first repenting of the self-reliance in my own heart. It felt as if I suddenly noticed the plank that was in my own eye (cf. Lk. 7:4).

I had to ask myself, have I built any “towers” in my life that were displeasing to the Lord? Were there any areas in my life that I was seeking to keep under my control, instead of submitting under Christ’s Lordship?

In the book of Deuteronomy, the Israelites are warned, “When you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. …You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth… ” (Dt 8:17, 6:12)

How many times have I credited myself as the source of “my accomplishments” or “my successes,” instead of giving credit where credit was due?

How many times have I arrogantly thought I knew better than God how to best live my life? How many times have I doubted the goodness of the Lord, doubted that He knew what He was doing? Forgotten that His ways are higher than my ways, and that His thoughts higher than my thoughts (Isa 55:9)?

How many times have I called him, “Lord, Lord,” but not done what He said (cf. Lk 6:46)?

How many times have I chosen the “kingdom of self” over the Kingdom of God?

I had to repent of giving in to the same temptation that Adam and Eve had given in to in the Garden of Eden—the temptation to be “like God” (Ge 3:4).

I was not that different from the people of the DPRK, I realized. I was but one sinner praying for another sinner. It is truly only by God’s grace, through the shed blood of Jesus, that we are received by God as blameless, and saved from our sinful ways which lead to death (cf. Ro. 6:23).

Praise God for His amazing love! And let us pray that the people of the DPRK can come to know of God’s great love for them.

Pray that the DPRK will “acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other.” (Dt. 4:39)

31 Korea Prayer Points for May June PDF 21KB

[i] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture citations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version, 1984, Colorado Springs: International Bible Society.
[ii] A Country Study: North Korea, Library of Congress, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/kptoc.html (Apr. 5, 2007).
[iii] Anna Fifield, “Aid to N Korea should not be linked to politics,” Financial Times, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/c9c076a6-dd0c-11db-8d42-000b5df10621.html (Apr. 6, 2007).
[iv] Luis Ramirez, “Despite Tremendous Odds, Religion Survives in North Korea,” Voice of America, www.voanews.com/english/archive/ (Apr. 6, 2007).
[v] Library of Congress.
[vi] Ibid.
[vii] Ibid.
[viii] Ibid.
[ix] Ibid.
[x] Fifield.
[xi] “Peace Watch: The North Korean Famine,” U.S. Institute of Peace, http://www.usip.org/peacewatch/2002/6/famine.html Apr. 9, 2007).
[xii] Angus Roxburgh, “North Korea slow to change,” BBC News Online, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1311706.stm (Apr. 6, 2007).
[xiii] Major Religions of the World Ranked by Number of Adherents, Adherents.com http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html (Apr. 6, 2007).