The cult of personality surrounding the Kim family has existed in North Korea for decades and can be found in many examples of North Korean culture. Although not acknowledged by the North Korean government, many defectors and Western visitors state there are often stiff penalties for those who criticize or do not show "proper" respect for the former leaders of the country, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, officially referred to as "eternal leaders of Korea". The personality cult began soon after Kim Il Sung took power in 1948, and was greatly expanded after his death in 1994.
While other countries have had cults of personality to various degrees, the pervasiveness and extreme nature of North Korea's personality cult surpasses that of both its original influences, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong. The cult is also marked by the intensity of the people's feelings for and devotion to their leaders, and the key role played by a Confucianized ideology of familism both in maintaining the cult and thereby in sustaining the regime itself. The North Korean cult of personality is a large part of Juche, the official ideology of the country. It is considered to be the world's only active imperial cult.
Background
The cult of personality around the Kim family has a deeply prominent place in North Korean culture.Choe, Yong-ho., Lee, Peter H., and de Barry, Wm. Theodore., eds. Sources of Korean Tradition, Chichester, NY: Columbia University Press, p. 419, 2000. According to Suh Dae-sook, the cult of personality surrounding the Kim family requires total loyalty and subjugation to the Kim family and establishes the country as a one-man dictatorship through successive generations. The 1972 constitution of North Korea incorporates the ideas of Kim Il Sung as the only guiding principle of the state and his activities as the only cultural heritage of the people. According to New Focus International, the cult of personality, particularly surrounding Kim Il Sung, has been crucial for legitimizing the family's hereditary succession, and Park Yong-soo said in the Australian Journal of International Affairs that the "prestige of the Suryong has been given the highest priority over everything else in North Korea". There are often stiff penalties for those who criticize or do not show "proper" respect for Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, The pervasiveness and extreme nature of North Korea's personality cult surpasses that of both its original influences, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong. Hitchens, Christopher. (2001). "Visit to A Small Planet"
Kim Il Sung developed the political ideology of the Juche idea, generally understood as self-reliance, and furthered it between the 1950s and the 1970s. Juche became the main guide of all forms of thought, education, culture and life throughout the nation until Kim Jong Il introduced the Songun (military-first) policy in 1995, which augments the Juche philosophy and has a great impact on national economic policies.
At the 4th Party Conference held in April 2012, Kim Jong Un further defined Juche as the comprehensive thought of Kim Il Sung, developed and deepened by Kim Jong Il, therefore terming it as "Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism" and that it was "the only guiding idea of the party" and nation.
According to a 2013 report by New Focus International, the two major North Korean news publications (Rodong Sinmun and the Korean Central News Agency) publish around 300 articles per month relating to the "cult of Kim". The report further suggests that with the death of Kim Jong Il, the average North Korean citizen is growing weary of the vast amount of propaganda surrounding the Kims. Daily NK likewise published in 2015 that the younger generation is more interested in the outside world and that the government is finding it difficult to secure the loyalty of the "jangmadang" (marketplace) generation and promoting the idolization of Kim Jong Un.
The North Korean government claims there is no cult of personality, but rather genuine support not only for their nation's leadership but also the philosophy of Juche socialism.
Kim Il Sung (1948–1994)
The personality cult surrounding Kim Il Sung is by far the most widespread among the people. While there is genuine affection for Kim Il Sung, it has been manipulated by the government for political purposes.
The history of the North Korean government's establishment of a personality cult of Kim Il Sung can be traced back to the time when the first statue of him was erected in North Korea in 1949. Initially, there were reformists within the Workers' Party of Korea who opposed the establishment of a personality cult of Kim Il Sung, but after Kim Il Sung was awarded the title of "Marshal of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea" in 1953 and the subsequent purges, including the August faction incident, removed political opponents, the veneration of Kim Il Sung came into full effect. In 1967, Kim Jong Il was appointed to the state propaganda and information department, where he began to focus his energy on developing the veneration of his father. It was around this time that the title Widaehan Suryong ('Great Leader') came into habitual usage. However, Kim Il Sung had begun calling himself "Great Leader" as early as 1949.
Hwang Jang-yop, the second highest level North Korean defector, has said that the country is completely ruled by the sole ideology of the "Great Leader". He further said that during the de-Stalinization period in the USSR, when Stalin's cult of personality was dismantled in 1956, some North Korean students studying in the Soviet Union also began to criticize Kim Il Sung's growing personality cult and when they returned home they "were subject to intensive interrogation that lasted for months" and "Those found the least bit suspicious were killed in secret".
According to official biographies, Kim Il Sung came from a long lineage of leaders and official North Korean modern history focuses on his life and activities. He is credited with almost single-handedly defeating the Japanese at the end of the occupation of Korea (ignoring Soviet and American efforts) and with rebuilding the nation after the Korean War. Over the course of his life he was granted titles of esteem such as "Sun", "Great Chairman", "Heavenly Leader" and many others, as well as awards like the "Double Hero Gold Medal". These titles and awards were often self-given and the practice would be repeated by his son. The Korean Central News Agency (the official government news agency) continually reported on the titles and perceived affection granted to Kim Il Sung by world leaders including Mao Zedong of China, Fidel Castro of Cuba and Jimmy Carter of the United States.
All major publications (newspapers, textbooks etc.) were to include "words of instruction" from Kim Il Sung. Additionally, his name must be written as a single word in one line, it may not be split into two parts if there is a page break or the line of text runs out of room (for example: Kim Il Sung, not Kim Il...Sung).
North Korean children were taught in school that they were fed, clothed and nurtured in all aspects by the "grace of the Chairman". The larger elementary schools in the country have a room set aside for lectures that deal specifically with Kim Il Sung (known as the Kim Il Sung Research Institute). These rooms are well taken care of, are built of high quality materials, and have a model of his birthplace in Mangyongdae. The size of the images of him which adorned public buildings are regulated to be in proportion to the size of the building on which they hang. His place of birth has also become a place of pilgrimage.
Kang Chol-hwan wrote of his childhood in North Korea: To my childish eyes and to those of all my friends, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il were perfect beings, untarnished by any base human function. I was convinced, as we all were, that neither of them urinated or defecated. Who could imagine such things of gods?
In his memoir With the Century, Kim Il Sung tells an anecdote involving his father and grandfather that gives the rationale for this sanitized presentation of North Korean leaders to their followers. The memoir says that as a young pupil, Kim Il Sung's father was often sent to fetch wine for one of his teachers, who drank frequently, until one day his father saw the drunken teacher fall face-first into a ditch. This led to a confrontation in which the young pupil shamed the embarrassed teacher into giving up wine altogether. Kim Il Sung's grandfather draws the moral of this story: My grandfather's opinion was this: If pupils peep into their teacher's private life frequently, they lose their awe of him; the teacher must give his pupils the firm belief that their teacher neither eats nor urinates; only then can he maintain his authority at school; so a teacher should set up a screen and live behind it.. Note that the version of With the Century available online (https://web.archive.org/web/20051231095503/http://www.korea-dpr.com/articles-ng/biography-kimilsung.htm) includes the anecdote and the grandfather's moral, but omits the detail about the necessity of screening eating/urinating from pupils.
Biographer Suh Dae-sook notes: The magnitude of adulation often borders on fanaticism. His photograph is displayed ahead of the national flag and national emblem; the song of Marshal Kim Il Sung is played ahead of the national anthem; the best institution of higher learning is named after him; the highest party school is also named after him; and there are songs, poems, essays, stories, and even a flower named after him.
Former Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha remarked on North Korea: "In Pyongyang, I believe that even Tito will be astonished at the proportions of the cult of his host, which has reached a level unheard of anywhere else, either in past or present times, let alone in a country which calls itself socialist.""Reflections on China II: Extracts from the Political Diary", Institute of Marxist–Leninist Studies at the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania," Tirana, 1979, pp. 516, 517, 521, 547, 548, 549.Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research 17 December 1979 quoting Hoxha's Reflections on China Volume II: "In Pyongyang, I believe that even Tito will be astonished at the proportions of the cult of his host, which has reached a level unheard of anywhere else, either in past or present times, let alone in a country which calls itself socialist."
The Kimilsungia is an orchid named after Kim Il Sung by Indonesian former president Sukarno. It was named after him in 1965 during a visit to the Bogor Botanical Gardens. According to a 2005 speech by Kim Jong Il, Sukarno and the garden's director wanted to name the flower after Kim Il Sung. Kim Il Sung declined, yet Sukarno insisted, "No. You have rendered enormous services to mankind, so you deserve a high honour." Domestically, the flowers (and the Kimjongilia, described below) are used in idolizing the leadership.
When Kim Il Sung died in 1994, Kim Jong Il declared a national mourning period for three years. Those who were found violating the mourning rules (such as drinking) were met with punishment. During the 10-day national mourning period, women were not allowed to wear makeup or style their hair, drinking, dancing, and musical activities were prohibited, and all North Koreans were required to pay their respects at the statue of Kim Il Sung. After his death he was referred to as the "Eternal President". In 1998 the national constitution was changed to reflect this.Constitution of North Korea (1988 amended) Wikisource When his father died, Kim Jong Il greatly expanded the nation's cult of personality. In 1997, the Juche Era dating system, which begins with the birth of Kim Il Sung (April 15, 1912) as year 1, was introduced and replaced the Gregorian calendar. However, it is no longer in use as of 2024.