As you might know, propaganda is very strong in the DPRK. The cult of personality is far beyond what I witnessed in Romania 25 years ago. For example, upon their death, Kim Il-sung was “elected” “eternal president of DPRK” and Kim Jong-il “eternal president of the Worker’s Party”. Therefore, the current person in charge of that country, Kim Jong-un, is actually the first secretary of the party, the top position not occupied by dead people. Their statues and murals are displayed everywhere and people, including foreigners, are expected to bow in front of them to show their respect.

The ruling party is the Workers’ Party of Korea. The guide said there are two other smaller party that govern the country in alliance with the main worker’s party. The national insign features a brush in addition to the hammer and sickle of the traditional communist countries. The brush is the symbol for the educated people, similar to the compass used in the former GDR.
In the hotel we had some Russian, Chinese, Japanese TV channels and also BBC. But the koreans can only watch the national broadcast, which covers mostly Kims’ activities. A common scene is when one of the Kims is walking in front of a group of peasants, workers or military personnel and suddenly, a group of 2 or 3 crying bystanders start running to hug him. Kim returns their hugging and pets them to calm their emotions, and then he walks further.
Each museum or exhibition emphasizes the close and direct guidance Kim Il-sung gave in development of agriculture, industry, transport and even subway system. Each objective, such as school, library park or railway station proudly displays a list of visits made by each of the leaders. This red plaque reads when each leader took a ride in the free fall tower in one amusement park. There was one such plaque in front of each ride in that park.
To further glorify the leaders, their accomplishments and their ideas, each summer the mass games are held, during which huge crowds display synchronized dancing, martial arts and other movements. We were able to see school children rehearsing for such games everywhere in Pyongyang during our visit.
First day of our trip was particularly solemn and wearing a shirt and a tie was compulsory. We visited fist two Kims’ mausoleum and the cemetery of national heroes.