PYONGYANG, North Korea — On a chilly April evening, tens of thousands of people honor their new ruler as towering statues of his father and grandfather are unveiled on a hilltop. The crowds bow in practiced unison and shake bright, fake flowers in choreographed praise.
This is how the world sees the people of this secretive nation: as Stalinist automatons in meticulously staged mass spectacles.
But go downtown on that same evening and mingle among the thousands of people walking to their trolley stops after the ceremony.
Young women walk arm in arm, young men eyeing them from nearby. Older women laugh as they swish along in the traditional Korean dresses modernized into polyester hoop skirts.
In many ways, it’s a vision of 1950s small-town America. Most men wear hats and ties. Few women show even a hint of cleavage.
This is the complex reality of the spectacles, which exist at a particularly North Korean intersection of dogma, tedium and entertainment.
“On days when rallies are held, people who participate can get together and talk over drinks after the event is over,” says Kim Seong-Min, 26, a university student now living in South Korea. “Rallies are chances to get together and feel the warmth of the community.”
The government, of course, is deeply feared, with vast interlocking webs of intelligence agencies, informer networks and prison camps.
But many people genuinely believe the propaganda; it is so all-encompassing that in many ways it would be hard not to.
That makes the rallies as close to religious services as most North Koreans have ever seen.
“We, all the people, cried together while listening to the speech of the Respected General,” says Paek Kum-Hui, a teacher who was part of an immense April 15 military parade where leader Kim Jong-Un gave his first address.
“Imagine you’re coordinating every breath you take with 100,000 people: It brings people together. … It has tremendous efficacy in running society,” says Suk-Young Kim, a University of California at Santa Barbara professor who has studied the spectacles.
