Jonathan Cheng

He is still eternal and he is still among his people in his own way.

I think it's certainly driven to a large extent by repression, by fear, because North Koreans don't really have a choice.

If you're to keep your head on your shoulders, you're going to engage in the rituals of Kim Il-sungism.

You are going to wake up and the first thing you're going to do is you're going to go to your living room and you're going to use a state-issued duster to carefully dust the portraits of Kim Il-sung and his son, Kim Jong-il, that you have on your wall.

When you have your graduation day, your wedding day, New Year's Day, you're going to go to the nearest statue of Kim Il-sung, and you're going to present a bouquet of flowers, and you're going to bow before that statue, because that's what every North Korean is expected to do every day.

You're going to memorize his words.

You're going to sing his praises, literally.

This is what it means to be North Korean.

And so, is there much of a choice?

I would say no, there is no choice.

But on the other hand, does it become real?

I would say that after 80 plus years of this one system, without any loosening, without any relaxation in the ideology, for many people, if you're younger than 80 years old and you're North Korean, this is all you've ever known.

This is your reality.

And I don't know that you are even aware that you have any other choices.

So I would say that, yes, in some respects, it is real.

It is within the narrow confines of the reality that they are permitted to understand.

It really starts from the cradle.

The very first words that you learn to speak if you're North Korean are praises to Kim Il-sung.

You learn to say, thank you, Father Kim Il-sung, for the food that you get in nursery school.

The first things you are taught to write when you're a young child in North Korea are to write the name Kim Il-sung.