[imText1]For North Korean residents, Kim Il Sung is not a man but a “god.” Although we often describe the personality cult of Kim Il Sung as “idolization”, for the reality of North Korea it would be more correct to use the expression “deification.”
After Kim Il Sung’s death, statues of eternal life with slogans of “the Great Suryeong lives with us forever” were erected in every city. Even after eleven years, North Korea people are deluded into believing that “Suryeong lives with us in spirit.”
Kim Jong Il regime has been maintained for decades relying on a state education that deifies Kim Il Sung. The government of North Korea built the Keumsusan Memorial Palace with luxurious decorations and spends every year a tremendous amount of budget for its maintenance.
The “Kim Il Sung Dead Body Palace” Built with the Money of Three Year Food Budget during the Mass Starvation Period
The Keumsusan Memorial Palace was formerly called “Shrine of the Keumsusan” or “The Chief Palace,” and used to be Kim Il Sung’s office and residence. When Kim Il Sung died, they changed the name to Keumsusan Memorial Palace, eternally placed the mummified body of Kim Il Sung, and changed the inside decorations.
The total area of the site is about 3,500,000㎡, which is about seventeen times the World Cup Stadium located in Sangam, Seoul. According to the testimony of Hwang Jang Yop, the former International Secretary of the North Korean Worker’s Party, the amount of money spent for the building of the Keumsusan Momorial Palace in 1994 is about 900 million dollars. With that amount of money, four Sangam World Cup stadiums could be built. With that amount of money, enough corn could be bought to feed the people of North Korea for three years.
|
|
|
|
| ▲ Inside of the Keumsusan Memorial Palace |
In front of the Keumsusan Memorial Palace, there is a big sized square, an area of about 90,000㎡ which is paved with granite, and its luxurious beauty is indescribable. The square is known to be 415m width and 216m length, which represents Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il’s birthdays.
North Korean people think of paying a visit to the palace as the honor of a life. Kim Il Sung is so well deified that people cannot even dare to think about how much it must have cost to decorate the place.
Some people call it “volunteered loyalty” but that would is an insult to the North Korean people to call such an obedience a loyalty, considering that since the beginning there was nothing else but propaganda and education on “loyalty to Kim Il Sung” and any other thoughts are completely limited.
In any case, it was the honor of all honors to meet Kim Il Sung while he was alive. The Party heard all wishes of the person who met Kim Il Sung in person, it was a fortune and an honor to meet Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il in person. Therefore it is a natural curiosity to wish to meet Kim Il Sung even as a mummy.
Before Worshipping, You must be completely Clean
When Kim Il Sung was still alive, a person could only meet him after receiving lessons about the kind of clothes, the way to talk, and the kind of words were to be used with him. This was because you could not cause “a worry to the Great Suryeong.”
However, you have to go through the same procedure to meet the dead Kim Il Sung, just as when he was alive.
First of all, in the heavy surveillance of the palace guards, one has to take a X-RAY to examine whether he possesses any metallic possessions. A visitor cannot carry any metallic belongings including keys. Then at the entrance where only one person can enter at a time, one has to take off all the dirt with a strong air blow. Dirt on the shoes comes off automatically.
The dress code is that one cannot wear casual clothes, a man has to wear a suit with a necktie and a woman either black suit or Hanbok (Korean traditional dress).
People are notified about the dress code beforehand, so before paying a visit to Pyongyang, people sometimes take suits separately and get change immediately before they enter the palace. There were some people who have come all the way from outside Pyongyang but could not see Kim Il Sung’s dead body because they did not have suits on.
“Finally the South Korean XXs Kneel Down in front of Kim Il Sung”
They say those who visit the palace for the first time become astonished and lose half of the conscience looking at the luxury and delicacies of the Palace. The visitors have to cry with obligation and those who cannot cry have to stick their finger in the mouth and make their eyes teary with their saliva.
However, it is not very hard to bring out tears from the eyes. Once they pass the lobby carpeted with marbles and arrive to the body of Kim Il Sung, even those people who had negative sentiments about Kim Il Sung feel their hearts sink. Kim Young Lan, a North Korea defector who had visited the palace in 2001 testifies, “the atmosphere of the place makes you cry.”
“When they opened the palace for the first time there were people who wept, but we cannot see such scenes anymore,” says Jung Won Hyong, a North Korean defector residing in China who have visited palace for a number of times. Jung says, “at first we think “wow, that person was our Great Suryong” and our hearts become so touched, but after visiting there for a number of times, your thoughts change to “all people are the same when they die.”
About the South Korean government evaluating suggestion to visit the Keumsusan Memorial Palace as a courteous return of the North Korean officials’ visit to HyunChoongWon(National Memorial Board), Jung pointed out that “instead of thinking the visit as a symbol of appeasement, they will be educated to believe that the Commander (Kim Jong Il) finally got the South Korean XXs to kneel down before Kim Il Sung. It will be an act that will greatly disappoint the North Korean people with anti-Kim Jong Il sentiment.”
