The country
Korea was annexed by Japan two years before the birth of Kim Il Sung. A protectorate that had already been established in 1904 meant that new laws and appointments had to be approved by the Japanese commander in Korea. After 1910 the Koreans relinquished all authority over their own country. Farmland was expropriated and fell into the hands of big landowners. Korean culture was replaced by Japanese under the policy of 'Transformation into Imperial Subjects'. Education was conducted through Japanese. Newspapers were published in Japanese, and Korean names were replaced by Japanese. Such changes were resisted of course. Help was requested from Western leaders but to no avail, and uncoordinated guerrilla groups carried out attacks. Kim Il Sung was one of those who joined a guerrilla group.
World War II started. The Japanese were eventually defeated thanks to the combined efforts of the superpowers. The United States, which didn't want a communist country next door to its new operating base in Asia, and the Soviet Union, which wanted a communist country on its doorstep, jointly proposed dividing Korea into a northern communist and a southern capitalist section. The border was drawn midway across the peninsula along the 38-degree latitude.

Educated and trained in the Soviet Union, the young but experienced Colonel Kim Il Sung set foot on what by then was largely liberated Korean soil in October 1945. After the division of Korea he was asked by the Soviet Union to set up a temporary council of the communist party. In August 1948 the Soviets staged elections in North Korea which, not surprisingly, were won by Kim Il Sung. He became the first president of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, a position he retained until his death.
Elections were also held in South Korea. These were won by Syngman Rhee, who became president of the Republic of Korea. Both Rhee and Kim Il Sung hinted at a reunion of the two Koreas. Militarily, the North was much more powerful than the South. It wasn't a surprise, therefore, when 70,000 North Koreans led by Kim Il Sung invaded the South. In just a few months the North Korean army had conquered almost all Korea, but the United Nations headed by America intervened. They forced the North Koreans back almost to the border with China. The frontline shifted southwards again. The temporary cease-fire signed on 27 July 1953 restored the situation that existed at the end of 1945. What started as a Civil War ended in a Cold War that continues to this day.

From then on the Juche, the North-Korean version of Marxist-Leninist ideology, has dominated North Korea. According to North Korean historiography, Kim Il Sung had started to formulate what would become the Juche Idea by the 1930s during his struggle against Japanese domination. An important aspect of this system is the recognition of the desire for independence possessed by every individual. That is why man will always resist every form of tyranny, why he must determine his own future, depend on himself alone and be independent. Man cannot do this alone of course, and that's where the masses come in.

Little is known about the possible influence of the Juche Idea on the design of the master plan for the new Pyongyang, or indeed about the influence that Kim Il Sung may have had on the plan. We can of course assume that the Great Leader involved himself in drawing up the master plan and made very sensible suggestion with 'instructions on the spot'. It doesn't seem likely that the reconstruction of the old Pyongyang was ever discussed. One of the traits attributed to man by the Juche Idea is a desire to create new things. Reconstruction of old urban fabric is inconsistent with this guiding belief.

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