North Korea: The cult of the Kims
Revealing the lengths the country’s propaganda department will go to to ensure Kim Jong-un’s image is untarnished.
For the past few months, North Korea’s propaganda department has been working overtime. Since the death of its so-called ‘Great leader’ Kim Jong-il last December, the country’s ‘Propaganda and Agitation’ department has been fashioning a cult of personality around his unelected successor, the third and youngest son, Kim Jong-un.
Any public humiliation over the failed satellite launch paled alongside the triumph that was the new Supreme Leader’s debut speech. And this, together with myriad publicity stunts and a starring role in a two-hour documentary recently broadcast on state TV, marks a new chapter in the cult of the Kims.
Listening Post‘s Meenakshi Ravi reveals the lengths North Korea’s propaganda department will go to to ensure Kim Jong-un’s image lives up to his father’s legacy.
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“The North Koreans are the most indoctrinated people on earth. Really from infancy they are taught to worship the Kim family as if it were a religion. A child’s first word is often not mummy or daddy – it’s often the Great Leader.” Peter Beck, Asia Foundation |