It has been over a month since the launch of the Kim Jong Eun regime in North Korea. During this period, North Korea has focused heavily on the idolization of Kim Jong Il and, at the same time, generating loyalty to the new leader.
North Korea’s rulers have made decisions covering the building of statues idolizing Kim Jong Il and the creation of a ‘Kim Jong Il Medal’, declaring the latter to be among the highest of state honors, it has generated a ‘loyalty competition’ among Party and enterprises affiliated with state organs at all levels, and, via domestic and internationally-oriented media outlets, it has moved to describe in words and images Kim Jong Eun’s affection for his people in a style designed to closely mirror that of Kim Il Sung.
At the same time, the North Korean people have been abnormally harshly regulated in terms of illegal cell phone usage to prevent the inflow and outflow of information, use of foreign currency in markets and extreme punishment for defection. Thus, to the outside world the succession has not given North Korea any great problems.
Indeed, contrary to predictions made before the passing of Kim Jong Il, analysis now has it that the Kim Jong Eun system is quickly stabilizing.
But how does real North Korean public opinion look after a month or so of the Kim Jong Eun system? According to inside sources, it is a little different to the established narrative; they say that nobody will express complaint against the Kim Jong Eun system, but nobody expects anything good to come of it, either.
One Pyongyang source recently met with Daily NK in Dandong, China, where she explained, “We all know that Kim Jong Eun has done nothing and will produce no achievements, that he is inexperienced and he is young. The people have no interest in him because they think there will be no change over the way it was before.”
The source continued, “The North Korean people have no good feelings for Kim Jong Eun, nor any expectations. They only wish that he would give them rations”. For last month’s lunar New Year’s holiday, many people were indeed given 3 to 5 days of rations, a time-honored North Korean method of softening up a discontented populace.
Meanwhile, public opinion in the border region is somewhat worse than in the capital. The reason is clear; harsh regulations and noticeably more serious punishments for wrongdoing are making people there more unhappy.
People are broadly compliant, but actually there are very few who willingly follow state policies and even fewer who are hopeful for the time being. “It is obvious that the policy of Kim Jong Eun and the puppets is to stick to the current system,” a Yangkang Province source commented to Daily NK.
The phenomenon of less international phone calls, less defections and less use of foreign currency are merely temporary, logical expedients to avoid harsh punishments, he added.
“The people no longer have any expectations from the policy of authorities who have been all talk for decades,” a second border region source, this one from North Hamkyung Province, told Daily NK on the 5th “They know that the only way they can survive is on what they know.”
The source went on, “People in North Korea jeer at those who are expecting rations that ‘we would all be dead if we were still waiting for rations’ and tell them to trade or do whatever they can to make some foreign currency so that even if the country collapses they will be able to survive”.
A Shinuiju source revealed, “Talk is going around along the lines of ‘how many fools would now risk their lives for this country?’ Nine out of ten people think like this. Even cadres shake their heads and say that ‘North Korea is at a point that will be difficult to fix’, or that ‘everyone’s mentality has changed’.”
