In the post-war era, Kim Il Sung's primary goal remained the national reunification of both Koreas under the leadership of the North. The ambition was to build a militarily powerful state based on a monolithic society in which, as a matter of daily practice, every individual would be subordinated to the Leader's political directives. Ideological suasion was meant to socialise the population into voluntary acquiescence but, failing persuasion, enforcement mechanisms were provided by a political system that formally and organisationally subordinated state, Party and societal structures to the Leader.

Political aims were explicit and formulated in the Juche ideology that was invented, sponsored and promulgated by the North Korean state. The most important goal of Juche ideology was to legitimate and uphold the Leader's autonomy in domestic and foreign policy. The North Korean state assigned exclusive authority and power to the ‘monolithic' Leader and explicitly stated that it was the Kim family dynasty that provided ‘continuity of leadership' that was essential to success in the building of the socialist state. The Juche ideology trumpeted the virtues of ideological and political education over material or economic rewards as a mechanism of state-building. In foreign affairs, the remit of Juche was to assert a rather innocuous notion of self-reliance and commitment to the principle of national independence in international affairs.

Post-war state-building was derived partly from Soviet models. It was also a product of what Kim understood as the lessons of practical experience of wartime mobilisation. Kim Il Sung set out to create ‘Socialism in our own style'. The aim was to institutionalise Kim's power and authority within an integrated state/Party/society complex in which the goals, aims and interests of the Leader were embedded and implemented. Points of view that differed from those of Kim Il Sung were thus inherently traitorous to the DPRK and the entire Korean nation, according to a North Korean ideology that proclaimed the exclusive national credentials of the Kim leadership.