Cult of personality in North Korea and other authoritarian systems.

Simple comparative study caseMagdalena Zofia Przygonska2013104561 정치외교학과

USSR, Yugoslavia, Albania, China, North Korea, North Vietnam and Cuba

Functions of communist leader cult:

1) Legitimization of the power of the small ruling group around the leaders,

2) A mechanism to manage and defuse the potentially explosive conflicts within the governing stratum itself,

3) A way to manage relations between the ruling elites and the wider society.

BUT

North Korea’s personality cult is new, unique, and peculiar in:

a) scope, b) intensity, c) duration.

The cult of Kim goes beyond Kim Il-sung himself

• Kim Il-sung is a father of the nation, • his father (Kim Hyong-jik) was the devout Communist, • his mother (Kang Ban-suk) was the mother of Korea, • his deceased wife (Kim Chong-suk) was the mother of

revolution• and his deceased brother (Kim Chol-ju) was the

revolutionary fighter.

FAMILIAL NATURE OF HIS CULT

Idolatry of Kim Il-sung

• Cult of Kim Il-sung is neither an accident nor an overnight phenomenon.

• The sources and substance of Kim’s cult are not all groundless fabrications. The problem with his cult is one of excess.

• The unprecedented intensity, scope and duration of the Kim Il-sung cult.

• Usually the cult may be imitable but not inheritable – death of Kim Il-sung was iconoclasm of his own cult.