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A while back, I posted a list defining what makes a Juche/North Korean sort of state. But it occurred to me recently that Romania is possibly the best country in Europe to create a Juche sort of state due to many reasons. I'd assume that the process would begin with a different internal setup during the Ceausescu era, although an earlier descent into "Juche" might be possible, but that would require a different WWII.
We really need to define what makes North Korea/Juche "work" to produce a state that is a trainwreck--fascinating, almost amusing to watch, but also extremely horrifying (especially to the people who live there) and dangerous to all around them (i.e., the rest of the world, especially their immediate neighbours).
We need a state which has most, if not all, of the following traits.
1. A perpetual state of siege nature. The country must constantly express the enemy being everywhere--around them, around the world, and probably within. Paranoia must rule society.
2. This leads to the country building a massive, massive army. The society must be as militarised as possible. Everyone must do their part for the military somehow. Songun politics must dominate and be constantly promoted and praised. WMDs must be constructed, preferentially nuclear weapons, but chemical weapons or biological weapons might do in a pinch. However, nuclear weapons are by far the best because of the public nature of their tests (visible on satellites and/or seismographs) and the huge nuclear weapons taboo.
3. Extreme belligerance against neighbouring countries, mainly for the sake of posturing and economic aid. WMD scares must be common. Public proclamations related to warfare against neighbours, i.e. "we're preparing for the final attack". Obviously, no war should actually occur, but border conflicts are always good to keep the threat up, as well as shooting down aircraft, artillery fire, sinking a ship or two, etc.
4. The country must actually be able to raise an army large enough to be a major regional threat. The North Korea military is one of the 10 largest in the world. By 2016 standards, this would mean a population of 15 million or above, limiting the countries that could do this successfully.
5. The enemy within is important. A brutal system of prison camps intended for dissidents must exist. These should evoke images of either OTL North Korea or perhaps Nazi Germany. These should be widespread and imprison large segments of the population. And absolutely nobody leaves without permission, and trying to do so should get you sent to the camps (along with possibly your family and friends).
6. Racism and nationalism are key. Your race is superior. Others of your race, if all your race is not within your nation, are corrupted. The ones not of your race are at best inferior allies, at worst, literal demons who must be destroyed. The state media should reflect this, like North Korean state media calling Obama a monkey who belongs in the zoo. This probably also means the state would need to be ethnically homogenous or nearly so, or at the very least, the different ethnic groups are united under some new ideal.
7. A literal personality cult. Juche has been described as the world's largest cult by membership. Near-religious, if not actually religious, worship of the leadership must exist. The leaders and their family must be portrayed as physical gods. Hereditary succession of some nature is a must--all power only flows through the legacy of the founder (your Kim Il-sung basically).
8. An economy strong enough to maintain some level of all this. This is the hardest part. But North Korea is not quite undeveloped (as some African countries, say)--it does have a semblance of economy largely thanks to Chinese, Soviet, and foreign aid in general. After all, at one point, North Korea was more prosperous than South Korea. Obviously, the sole point of all this is to keep the leaders in power and keep the military strong. But the resources must be there, and industrialisation must exist.
Optional traits--this is mainly for parallelism with North Korea, but it keeps the state in the public eye even when the war scares aren't going on.
1. Hypocritical leadership in every aspect. A luxurious lifestyle, with many palaces, fancy cars, fancy everything for the ruling class and especially the leaders. Very common to many dictatorships.
2. Dysfunctional and bizarre personality of the leaders. It's well-known that both Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un are alcoholics, and Kim Jong-il's death has been blamed partially on his copious alcohol consumption. Kim Jong-il's love of film is a great example, like kidnapping South Koreans to make a Godzilla knockoff, or simply his huge love of James Bond. Likewise, the accounts of their massive feasts, arbitrary executions (Kim Jong-un executing a random turtle farmer, for instance)--speaking of which, execution/purges by mortar and anti-aircraft fire or other dramatic ways of killing is preferred, if not actual ISIS-style executions (North Korea is rumoured to do so, but no one knows for certain, though Jang Sung-taek was certainly not killed this way)--and other wacky stories must be making the news semi-regularly and color public perception of the leadership in other countries. Even if the stories aren't necessarily true, they must circulate in the press, like the insane golf skills of the North Korean leadership or that one North Korean documentary involving life in the US.
3. Just leaders plain easy to make fun of. Looking at a gallery of dictators, all of the Kims seem rather amusing looking instead of imposing/deranged like others, especially Jong-il and Jong-un. Kim Jong-il is portrayed as a screaming midget who looks like Billie Jean King. Kim Jong-un is nicknamed "Fatboy Kim" and is portrayed as a manchild.
4. Lastly, just in general bizarre stuff. Like state-run meth labs, freakouts over films negatively portraying/spoofing the country, strange hotels for the few tourists allowed in like the Yanggakdo Hotel, etc.
I might've missed one or two, but that's a pretty good start for any potential North Korea. I think it could emerge out of either a fascist or communist context.
1. If Romania isolates itself from the post-communist world, then there's plenty of opportunities for paranoia to rule. Something like the OTL Romanian Revolution might occur, but with far less support from the military and other groups, meaning it's crushed. Naturally it's a filthy capitalist plot, and capitalist infilitration--including from neighbouring Ukraine
2. Romania can definitely build and equip a very large army. One problem might be if Decree 770 (the extreme pro-natalist law) isn't repealed at some point, then women will be too rare in the military (thus decreasing the threat level) unlike North Korea. And Ceausescu's Romania did indeed go for WMDs. I'm not sure if they could've gotten nukes before North Korea did OTL, but it's a definite possibility. Another problem is that Romania needs to give the Army much more strength in society so they don't support any popular revolutions
3. Romania can blame capitalist Hungarians for all sorts of subversion, since the nations are historical rivals. Romania has historic claims on Bulgarian land (Southern Dobruja), Ukrainian land (Budjak) and of course the big one--all of Moldova. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a violent conflict between Moldova and Romania at some point. If Moldova survives, then it will be the "South Korea" to Romania's "North Korea".
4. See point 2. Romania has about the same population as North Korea, or would if the borders were sealed and no one allowed out.
5. Yep, the Securitate, already one of the most feared and brutal police forces of the Eastern Bloc. But let's make them worse somehow. However, I don't think the Securitate would have people being born and living their whole lives inside concentration camps, since that to me strikes me as one of the Confucian-inspired aspects of Juche--I might be wrong on this, however.
6. Ceausescu already was inspired by Juche, and bizarre nationalist historiography like Protochronism was part of state ideology. While I don't think Romania can get as racist as North Korea, I would expect as the "Juche level" ramps up after the end of communism elsewhere, it will be very, very unpleasant to be a Hungarian in Romania. There's also the fact that Ceausescu rehabilitated many figures of WWII-era Romania and called himself Conducator (like Ion Antonescu) adding a nice fascist tinge, just like Juche basically. This tendency could increase after the end of the Soviet Union.
7. Ceausescu had one of the most impressive personality cults in OTL, which involved his whole family, AND was inspired in part by Kim Il-Sung. But it doesn't strike me as "religious" as North Korea, extreme as it was. Hereditary succession could indeed happen, since there's this guy, although he'll need a liver transplant. The Ceausescu family was overall pretty well-loved by the state personality cult.
8. The resources are there (coal, oil, others), Romania had a decent economy (and higher GDP than North Korea ever did) in the communist era, it can get decent amounts of Soviet aid (although the Soviets aren't their friend).
And for the "optional traits", Romania has this going for it:
1. Check in every aspect.
2. Ceausescu himself was disfunctional and crazy, his wife "Dr." Elena Ceausescu was also a nut, but Nicu Ceausescu, "heir apparent" to the family dictatorship, seems the craziest. Extreme alcoholic, big into gambling, and allegedly friends with Saddam Hussein's son Uday. If Nicu took power and kept it, the media would have plenty to report.
3. Ceausescu was rather short and apparently embarrassed enough by it to try and hide it in public appearances. Other than that, not sure.
4. I'm sure Juche Romania would produce plenty of "fun" stories like that.
Now anyway...
First, how do we get this to develop in Romania? There were reasons Romania didn't do this OTL.
And what might Juche Romania do? The descent into full-on crazy would basically start once the Eastern Bloc comes undone. What happens in Moldova and Ukraine would be very, very interesting. Moldova wouldn't want to unify with a regime like Romania's. Romania would be gearing up to do something about that. And are Romania's neighbours really in any condition to defend landlocked Moldova?
How many other war scares might Romania cause? Romania can use nukes as a threat much more effectively than
What might the future be? Nicolae would be 73 in 1991. At some point, he'd want to retire. Nicu's alcoholism could mean he dies before his father, or otherwise means he only gets a few years. After that, does the Ceausescu family dictatorship end, or do they pick another Ceausescu? In any case, the years around 2000-2005 are pretty critical for the long-term stability of Juche Romania as there will be transition in leadership.
And finally, would the world treat "Juche" Romania much differently than North Korea? There's the pretty obvious issue that unlike North Korea, Romania has no friends left after 1991. In theory, Putin's Russia might find some use in helping them stay around, and they'll need it more than ever. A Zyuganov-led Russia might as well. The ultimate goal, I suppose, would be to find a way to detach the Budjak and unite it with Romania, but like hell would the world allow that and Juche Romania will be likely to find minimal, if any support, from ethnic Romanians there.