The “Ten Principles for the Establishment of the One-Ideology System” (당의 유일사상체계확립의 10대 원칙) are the closest thing North Korea has to a supreme law — one that takes precedence over the country’s constitution in practice, if not in name. They govern the everyday lives of every North Korean citizen, from the workplace and school to the home.
The Principles were drafted by Kim Jong Il — with the assistance of then-ideologist Hwang Jang-yop — following Kim Jong Il’s designation as Kim Il Sung’s successor in early 1974, and were formally announced that same year. They consist of ten main articles expanded into 65 sub-clauses, each spelling out in granular detail how the one-ideology system should be established and maintained. The Ten Principles have since come to supersede both the constitution and the edicts of the Korean Workers’ Party, functioning in practice as the country’s highest governing document.
Following Kim Jong Il’s death in 2011, the Principles were updated to include his name alongside Kim Il Sung’s, and were renamed the “Ten Principles for the Establishment of the Party’s Single Leadership System.” A further revision in 2013 enshrined newer ideological concepts such as Kimilsungism–Kimjongilism, the Songun Revolution, and nuclear statehood.
The original ten principles, as announced in 1974, are as follows:
- We must give our all in the struggle to unify the entire society with the revolutionary ideology of Great Leader Kim Il Sung.
- We must honor Great Leader comrade Kim Il Sung with all our loyalty.
- We must make absolute the authority of Great Leader comrade Kim Il Sung.
- We must make Great Leader comrade Kim Il Sung’s revolutionary ideology our faith and make his instructions our creed.
- We must adhere strictly to the principle of unconditional obedience in carrying out Great Leader comrade Kim Il Sung’s instructions.
- We must strengthen the entire Party’s ideology and willpower and revolutionary unity, centering on Great Leader comrade Kim Il Sung.
- We must learn from Great Leader comrade Kim Il Sung and adopt the communist outlook, revolutionary work methods, and people-oriented work style.
- We must value the political life we were given by Great Leader comrade Kim Il Sung, and loyally repay his great political trust and care with heightened political awareness and skill.
- We must establish strong organizational discipline so that the entire Party, nation, and military move as one under the sole leadership of Great Leader comrade Kim Il Sung.
- We must pass down the great achievements of the revolution by Great Leader comrade Kim Il Sung from generation to generation, inheriting and completing it to the end.
