This paper aims to explore how the international environments influenced the rise of the Monolithic Ideological System in the mid-1960s in North Korea. The Sino-Soviet split intensified over the 1960s, and formed the basis of Kim Il Sung’s threat perception. North Korea attempted both to reconcile and cooperate, but it was beyond its ability. The North, maintaining the security com- mitment with China and the Soviet Union, tried to receive aid from both countries; especially, military aids from the Soviet Union, and economic aid from China. Such goals were hard to reach. Pyongyang soon responded by adopting self-rehabilitatio, the Parallel Policy of Economic and Military Developments and the Four Military Guidelines consecutively. What North Korea chose during the Sino-Soviet split was self-reliance, or in other words, independence. It implied that North Korea was in- dependent from the two communist giants. Pyongyang’s stance went more independent and aggressive especially after the Cultural Revolution in China. The North’s threat and later crisis perception and domestic forces’ response to the new interna-tional settings made Kim Il Sung regard even the slightest dissent or dissatisfaction as a threat to himself. If such a challenge were combined with foreign powers, it could be a great danger to his crown and survival. Therefore, It would be concluded that the Monolithic Ideological System took place as a preemptive measure in the domestic arena.
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