According to Hwang, Kim is, and has been, supreme commander of the military since February 1992. In preparation for his father s death anniversary, the younger Kim issued an historic work titled On Preserving the Juche Character and National Character of the Revolution and Construction. In this work which was carried on the first three pages of all the Pyongyang-based newspapers June 21 editions, Kim reiterates much of the Juche rhetoric of the past and updates its ideas to conform with the contemporary political and international situations. According to Kim, all nations, being equal and independent, require the popular masses shaping the destiny of their country and nation. This is, for Koreans, what is meant by maintaining the Juche character.
Human beings have both a class character and a national character.
Kim then turns to explain the success of Korean-Juche socialism in a world of faltering socialist states. The socialist cause declined because it failed to become the cause of genuine national independence. Socialism suffered the gradual weakening of its class foundation and was unable to avoid frustration and collapse due to the anti-socialist maneuvers of the imperialists and the renegades of the revolution. The state must advance cooperation with other states on the principle of complete equality and voluntary will while creating their own lives and history with freedom. Failure to do so, as in the case with the south, leads to subordination and national ruin.