North Korea in the Twilight of Communism: Ideological Transformation and International Relations during the Cold War's Final Decade

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Abstract The 1980s were a time of considerable ideological transformations in North Korea and the Soviet Union. North Korean leaders revived orthodox Marxism-Leninism, whereas the opposite was true in the Soviet Union, as Mikhail Gorbachev ushered in a fundamental reassessment of Marxism-Leninism that led to the downfall of ideological orthodoxy. Previous scholarship has barely explored this revival and the impact of Soviet ideological changes on North Korea. Drawing on newly released archival evidence and North Korean party publications, this article explores these interrelated and often contradictory phenomena. North Korea's revival of Marxism-Leninism, far from being superficial, was profound and strategically designed to link North Korean foreign policy much more closely with state ideology. The reoriented North Korean policy actively reached out to the Communist world to attain economic and diplomatic superiority vis-à-vis South Korea. Soviet ideological changes under Gorbachev threatened to undermine the DPRK's foreign policy goals and new ideological commitments, thus resulting in sharp ideological disagreements and ultimately the end of North Korea's Marxist-Leninist renaissance.