When Kim Jong-Il died in December 2011, North Korean citizens had two options. Attend mourning events for the deceased supreme leader or face a minimum of six months in a labor camp. Even then, simply attending one of these memorial events was apparently not enough as the Daily Mail reported that citizens that showed up but weren’t crying or sad enough were also sent to labor camps.

If we rewind back to my high school years when I was first learning about the situation in North Korea, I was strangely fascinated and disturbed at the information I was receiving about the isolated country. At that point in time, I had seen clips of Kim Il-sung’s funeral where everyone, including the reporter, was hysterically crying. This can’t be real I thought.

I found myself later scrolling online reading article after article that listed a range of things that only happen in North Korea. There were these accounts about how the North Korean people believed that Kim Jong-un and his father and grandfather were gods. I was in disbelief with the information I had received. Things can’t be that bad, I thought. They don’t actually believe that Kim Il-sung is an actual god, do they? There may be many weird things going on in that country but I thought this had to be an exaggeration. Fast forward a couple of years to the summer of 2019, I went out for tacos with friends and was introduced to a missionary that had gone to North Korea a few years ago as an “English Teacher.” The question at the top of my list for this missionary was if the people of North Korea actually believed that the Kim family members are gods. 

“Yes,” she replied.

With sheer skepticism, I asked if they could be faking it. 

“If they are faking it, they are doing a very good job at it. It looked very real to me.”

Upon further research, it turns out the reality of the situation is actually much worse. As I delved into the deep world of North Korea, I was horrified to find out that my friend was right.

In National Geographic’s documentary Inside North Korea, the cameras followed a team of ophthalmologists led by Dr. Sanduk Ruit from Nepal inside the Hermit Kingdom who were there to provide cataract eye surgery to 1,000 blind North Koreans. On this trip, National Geographic journalist Lisa Ling posing as a member of the medical team had an opportunity to visit a more privileged home. Six government officials were also there to watch every interaction between Lisa and this privileged North Korean family. The cameras captured the partially blind grandmother with her granddaughters, one on each side, as she held their hands and the three of them bowed to the portraits of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un.

In the hospital, after the medical team finished performing all the surgeries, it was time for Dr. Sanduk Ruit to remove the patches from his patients. First in line to have their eye patches removed is a 23-year-old woman who had been blind for years. You would think that after all this, the young woman would show some gratitude for Dr. Ruit and his medical team but what actually happened next was quite disturbing. Moments after the young woman had the patches removed from her eyes, her father who came along with her, tells her she can see again thanks to the Great General. “We must bow to our Great General for this,” he says. Both the father and daughter approach the two large photos of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-il as the daughter says, “I want to show my gratitude to our Great General,” she exclaimed as they bow in gratitude. “Thank you very, very much!” they exclaim as the crowd of North Koreans behind them give a round of applause. Then they start jumping and exclaiming, “We praise you!”

I watched this part of the documentary in utter disbelief. Did North Koreans really believe this nonsense or were they putting on an act because the North Korean officers escorting the National Geographics team were present and watching? It was uncomfortable to watch.

You have to start them young

In North Korea, all preschool children are required to spend 30 minutes a day learning about the childhoods of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. This portion of their studies is known as the “Greatness Education” which has the purpose of brainwashing or creating loyalty to the regime at a young age. As if this wasn’t bad enough, the Daily NK reported in August 2020 that Kim Jong-un’s sister decided to update the “Greatness Education” and is pushing the lessons from 30 minutes to 90 minutes long.

On special days like Kim Jong-un’s birthday as well as on the birthdays of the two previous leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, North Korean children receive a 1 kg bag of sweets. Before children can reach into the bag and enjoy the sweets, they first have to approach the pictures of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il and show them gratitude. Families don’t need to look far as portraits of the two leaders are mandatory in every household and every public space. There is also a story that circulated in 2020 of a woman who was punished for saving her two sons from a burning house but not saving the portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-Il. This is the bizarre and sad reality that exists even today. Everything good in life is a gift from their “benevolent leaders,” to whom every citizen is expected to be eternally grateful. With this level of indoctrination, perhaps it’s not so hard to believe that their tears were real after all.

*This post was written by our social media coordinator Melissa Vasquez.