The Internet is virtually banned, there's no free press
and listening to foreign radio is illegal -- if any country can build a
Stalinist-style personality cult in the digital era, it's North Korea.
Following the death of its
longtime "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-Il on December 17, the repressive
communist regime's propaganda machine has swung into action to burnish the
image of his youngest son and successor, Jong-Un.
The North's official news
agency reported that on Sunday Jong-Un sent hot sweet drinks to mourners
braving wintry conditions to pay their respects to his late father.
"He is such a meticulous
and tender-hearted man," it said. "The loving care repeatedly shown
by Kim Jong-Un for people when the whole nation is overcome with sorrow will be
conveyed to posterity as a legend about love for people."
The previous day Jong-Un was
hailed for rushing fresh fish to the citizens of Pyongyang to fulfil his
father's last wish.
He still has a long way to go
to match Kim Jong-Il's many extraordinary feats, which included 11 holes-in-one
in a single round of golf.
The outlandish myths about the
"Dear Leader" made him a figure of fun and ridicule in the West. But
in North Korea the numerous legends helped to perpetuate his 17 years in power,
along with prison camps and a massive army.
Kim's picture hangs inside
every North Korean home, while propaganda posters hail the late leader and his
father, founding president Kim Il-Sung. From an early age, schoolchildren sing
the praises of the two men.
They are taught that rainbows
appeared over the sacred Mount Paekdu at the time of Kim Jong-Il's birth there,
although experts believe he was born in a Russian guerrilla camp.
While Kim's death was mocked
overseas on Twitter as an "epic loss to golf", few North Koreans are
likely to see the remarks.
Social media helped to
galvanise Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa in 2011,
but under the world's last remaining communist dynasty, surfing the web is
impossible for most ordinary people.
There is a nationwide intranet
system called Kwangmyong but it is tightly controlled and does not provide a
window to the outside world.
"North Korea is still run
as if it's the 1950s or 1960s," said professor Andrei Lankov, a North
Korea specialist at Seoul's Kookmin University.
"There are a surprisingly
large number of computers around but they are not connected to the Internet,
which is banned. All official radios have fixed tuning so you can listen only
to the official broadcast," he said.
That means it will not be hard
for North Korea to recreate the same kind of personality cult for the younger
Kim as it did for his father, he said.
The senior Kim did show signs
of being somewhat Internet-savvy. When then-US secretary of state Madeleine
Albright visited Pyongyang in 2000, the late leader reportedly asked for her
email address.
Yet North Korea remains one of
the world's most closed nations. Most of its citizens are banned from
travelling abroad and visitors to the country are typically closely monitored
and not permitted to stray from the capital.
A ban on mobile phones has been
lifted and the North had more than 800,000 registered subscribers as of the end
of September.
Seoul activists say it is
difficult for users to make or receive overseas calls because of limited
service and tight oversight.
But information from outside is
slowly seeping in, through smuggled mobile phones which connect to Chinese
networks near the border and South Korean DVDs and videotapes imported
clandestinely.
"Thanks to the spread of
these videos North Koreans came to realise that the official story about poor,
desperate South Korea is a lie," said Lankov.
"North Koreans finally
came to realise they are lagging behind. However, few of them realise how far
behind."
Even so, Pyongyang still has a
tight grip on news, keeping the world in the dark about Kim Jong-Il's death for
two days until the shock announcement on Monday last week by a weeping news
presenter.
It is impossible to know how
many of the tears shed in North Korea for the late leader are genuine, but
people who fled Kim's harsh rule say that it is partly the result of years of
indoctrination.
"The North's brainwashing
is so strong that I found myself crying at the news of Kim Jong-Il's death even
though I defected years ago and have publicly said I hate him," said Lee
Hae-Young, director of the Seoul-based Association of North Korean Defectors.
"The slavery mentality is
so deeply ingrained in the North Korean people because of propaganda and
brainwashing."
Daniel Rook | AFP News
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