(Source: Wikimedia Commons) Introduction North Korean political ideology could be seen as a blend of various political and philosophical schools, including communism, nationalism, and, to some extent, Confucianism. While Confucianism was criticized as a feudal ideology, its notions of loyalty toward a monarch and filial piety became incorporated into the regime’s ideological toolkit. Both the roles of a monarch and a parent were fused in one person, as Kim Il Sung was portray

YIKUS Issue Brief No. 173 Kwon Ji-min (Senior Researcher, Institute for Unification Studies, Yonsei University) The year 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the Republic of Korea’s liberation. Over the past eight decades, the Korean Peninsula has experienced a tumultuous transition from the suffering of Japanese colonial rule to liberation, the subsequent division, and the consolidation of the North-South Korean system. This historical process is not simply a series of politic