North Korean propoganda efforts are fascinating; the Kim regime, especially under Kim Jong-Il has always relied on exhortations to great effort on the part of the worker, for the betterment of their lives and, primarily, in gratitude for the Struggles of the Leader.
The simultaneous nature of the meetings, which were entitled, ‘Welcome great leader comrade Kim Jong Il’s historic China visit with high political passion and results!’ is unusual. Ordinarily, information is revealed first to provincial and city organs, then lower level Party organizations and then people’s units.
The Yangkang source went on, “The meeting continued for around an hour, about how this China trip helped solidify the friendship between Chosun and China, about how making this shortcut to the strong and prosperous state was a great achievement, and about how we ought to push forward with the construction of the strong and prosperous state, revering the General with one heart.”
“With the people in the meeting thinking that we must have gotten some kind of big assistance from China this time, they emphasized strengthening the friendship with China, and at the same time gave ideological education about how the General went to China for a long time, trying his best for the country and the people,” the source added.
I find that last bit the most interesting: “trying his best”. Kim, his illegitimate siblings and children are free from the repercussions of failure. Many of the elite North Korean’s Martin interviewed for Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader escaped North Korea after some failing, afraid of being accused with “factionalism” and punished with banishment to the hinterlands or “re-education”. One man, I recall, worked as a diplomat/drug smuggler/money launderer in Europe—North Korea is famously short on hard currency—and fled to a South Korean embassy after having raised only $1.4 million when his charge was $2 million.
Speaking of re-education, this article from the New York Times has it that China maintains “re-education-through-labor” camps. Indeed, the Wikipedia has an article on the subject. I admire the frankness of the Chinese, if not the prisons.
