Mick Hartley

Great Leader Kim Il Sung died 17 years ago. Such was the outpouring of grief that he was soon installed as North Korea's Eternal President. And the sacred memory of his death must never be tainted:

A local Workers’ Party secretary and the chairwoman of the local Union of Democratic Women (UDW) in Gyeongwon County in North Hamgyung Province have been dismissed from their jobs over an incident in which a number of farm workers belonging to the UDW were found singing and dancing in public on July 8, the anniversary of Kim Il Sung’s death….

A source told The Daily NK on Tuesday, “Every year in July, a number of people judged to be model workers from Sasoo Farm in Gyeongwon County take a field trip to Pyongyang to tour the Mt Keumsoo Memorial Palace as part of the ‘Red Spirit Triumph Campaign’. These women had waited three days outside Hoonyoong Station for the train to come, and because they were so bored they decided to sing and dance to pass the time; it just so happened that it was the date Kim Il Sung died.”

Late trains are an everyday occurrence in North Korea thanks to severe electricity shortages, and waiting for days at the train station is commonplace. To kill time, waiting passengers often sing and dance together.

The source explained further, “There are a lot of people from mountainous provinces; North Hamgyung, Yangkang and Jagang, who have never been to Pyongyang. Joyful at the fact that they were going to Pyongyang, it appears that the women forgot for a moment that the anniversary of Kim Il Sung’s death is a designated official period of mourning by the government.”

“Unluckily for them, a government inspector and People’s Army Party Secretary Seok Gil Ho, had been sent down by the Central Party to check on the harvests, and just so happened to see the scene as they were passing by the station. The women were severely rebuked on the spot, and in the afternoon the local Party secretary was summoned by the Army Party Secretary, where he too was first admonished and then dismissed.”…

Kim Jong Il designated ten days of mourning directly following his father’s death in 1994, during which anybody who disturbed the peace by drinking alcohol or conducted family events such as weddings or birthday parties, was expelled to a political prison or a mine….

Astonishingly, North Korean citizens born on July 8 were even forced to change their birth dates after the death of Kim Il Sung. It is also known that from 1995, the year after Kim died, the parents of every single baby born on the same date were forced to register an alternative birth date on their family register.