that Kim’s unstable power during and
immediately following the Korean War caused
him to deploy ideological purges in order to
consolidate his political position, using the
juche principle of national solidarity as a
domestic instrument of personal cult-building.17
To this end, Kim Il Sung forbade any other
ideology from being discussed or taught in
North Korea. Since the content and application
of the juche ideology were very ambiguous until
the late 1960s, Kim Il Sung was the only one
who could successfully wield and implement
the philosophy. Thus, implementing and
executing policies based on juche effectively
consolidated Kim Il Sung’s absolute political
power and indirectly provided ideological
justification for his dictatorship in North
Korea.18