The early 1990’s are called the ‘special period’ in Cuban historiography. Before this era Cuba’s biggest trading partner was the soviet union. And as the Soviet Union ceased to exist this had some serious economic ramifications for the small island nation. Around the same time the idea of Juche (self reliance) took hold in North Korea.
No.
There was a post here maybe a year ago that I saved, but it’s not in my saved posts now and I can’t find it by search so it must be deleted. But someone linked a quora post from someone - I believe they were Chinese - who put the work in to study Juche and what it means in practical terms. I’ll try as best I can to summarize from memory.
Juche is not “self-reliance”. That is how westerners (not you OP) who don’t understand or want to understand socialism as applied to the Korean experience or just Korean history over the last ~125 years or so understand it.
“Juche” is to Korean communism as “freedom” is to western capitalism. How much do westerners actually understand about capitalism? Not much at all. But capitalism has reinforced this idea of “freedom” as the highest ideal. Free markets lead to free people, so they say. So while your typical American doesn’t have the first clue about actual capitalism, they have a vague notion that capitalism and “freedom” are tied at the hip. While we all know how capitalism limits real freedom, there’s certainly kernels of truth to this idea when you see the world as the capitalists do.
All ideologies need “slogans” that communicate a broader truth in simple terms. “Juche” serves this purpose for the DPRK. It’s obviously hard to define this as “freedom” is in capitalism, but the best way to sum it up would be that it means the Korean people are in control of their own history. Communism allows the people of the DPRK to write their own history and chart their own path. They control their own destiny. They don’t have to answer to or please anyone else, what the Korean people desire for themselves is up to them to make into reality. Self-reliance can be a part of this but limiting Juche to that really limits it.
Now if you are an American or a Brit or whatever, you might read this definition and not get what the big deal is. But put yourself in the shoes of someone in the DPRK. Your country was under a brutal occupation by the Japanese Empire for decades. Then after liberating yourselves, your country gets split in two by a couple drunk American officers. Then the Americans unleash hell on earth, kill 20% your people, and level nearly every building. And then for decades after that, the West does its best to isolate your country to bring to heel.
If your people have gone through all that, I can see how the idea of taking your destiny into your own hands - not subject to the power of others - could mean quite a bit.