Featured Image Credit: LADbible
Topics: News, North Korea, World News, Kim Jong-un, Travel
Gerrard Kaonga
Topics: News, North Korea, World News, Kim Jong-un, Travel
North Korea is unlike any other country in the world, sparking significant interest around the world about the notoriously secretive nation.
Unlike other countries around the globe, experiencing the people and culture of North Korea isn’t as easy as hitting up a travel agent and booking your flight.
In fact, getting into the country is quite difficult as it isn’t exactly open to tourists from any and every nation.
Run by Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, it has been under the rule of The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since it was created in 1948. Since then, it has built up a reputation of being difficult to get into, for obvious reasons.
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But on the flipside, getting out of the country can prove to be even more difficult, something defectors over the years can attest to.
Timothy Cho is one of those people, and he sat down with LADbible to answer a slew of questions about what North Korea is actually like.
When the North Korean defector was asked a question about what media censorship and propaganda is like in the country, he gave a rather surprising response.
“Well, if you buy a TV in North Korea, the government comes to your house, they take all the channels out and leave only one channel.
“What is it about? It is about the Kim family and documentaries, songs, all 24/7, if you watch the TV [at anytime] it is all about the Kim family propaganda.
“And the songs? Every song is about the Kim family propaganda and history is all about the Kim family.”
Now, while having one channel dedicated to the ruling family might not sound that ideal to most people, he also explained there is a ‘cult of personality’ around the family in the country.
He explained: “Within North Korea, they have created this mythical family of the Kim. From first [Kim Il-sung] to second [Kim Jong-il]. First Kim, the eternal leader and the second leader is the son of God, son of the first Kim.
“What they said of the second Kim when he was born was that a giant star appeared above the house where he was born.
“So the first Kim was the eternal leader, he never dies, the second Kim was the son of God and now they have a third Kim, [Kim Jong-un].
“You are worshiping them for your entire life from an early age, inside and outside the home. Every national holiday, you have to go to Kim family statue and bow to it, that is worship.”
Cho even went into greater detail about how he was brainwashed, and how he even starved himself when the first Kim died, truly believing that his God had died.