From Proletarian Internationalism to Non-Alignment

Kim II Sung’s Concept of the “Era of Chajusŏng” and DPRK Foreign Policy in the 1970s

Abstract

In the early-mid 1970s the DPRK leadership presented a new analysis of the international situation and the political tasks required of it. This new narrative was summarized by Kim Il Sung’s concept of the “era of chajusŏng,” a historical conjuncture in which the “primary tendency” was a universal yearning for national self-determination clashing with the declining forces of imperialism. The struggle implied in this conception was one in which nation-states, rather than subaltern classes, were the primary protagonists, and of which the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was the most important political expression. This understanding of the historical moment rationalized a set of objectives, strategies, and partnerships quite different from those pursued by its socialist allies, but which made possible a level of international engagement previously foreclosed to Pyongyang. In the process, the DPRK leadership at times openly downplayed the contemporary relevance of Marxism-Leninism, particularly in the Global South.