Mick Hartley

The criticism sessions on mourning the Dear Leader are complete. Now for the punishments:

Daily NK learned from a source from North Hamkyung Province on January 10th, “The authorities are handing down at least six months in a labor-training camp to anybody who didn’t participate in the organized gatherings during the mourning period, or who did participate but didn’t cry and didn't seem genuine.”

Furthermore, the source added that people who are accused of circulating rumors criticizing the country’s 3rd generation dynastic system are also being sent to re-education camps or being banished with their families to remote rural areas….

The North Hamkyung source commented of the sessions that they "created a vicious atmosphere of fear, causing people to accuse ‘that young upstart’ (Kim Jong Eun) of preying on the people now that he has taken power."

Along with criticism sessions, the authorities also turned up the heat on efforts to idolize Kim Jong Eun immediately after the mourning period ended, something which has yet to let up. “Every day from 7am until 7pm they have vehicles for broadcast propaganda parked on busy roads full of people going to and from work, noisily working to proclaim Kim Jong Eun’s greatness,” the source explained.

The intense propaganda is said to be taking its toll on the people as well, with the source commenting, “People in factories and schools, regional and ward Party members, members of the Youth League and the Union of Democratic Women are all being made to study the Joint New Year’s Editorial [see here – MH] and the greatness of Kim Jong Eun in the morning and afternoon, with the sessions packed so tightly together without a break that people are just exhausted.”

I think by now we can dismiss any notion that things might improve for the wretched North Koreans under the new leadership of Supreme Commander Kim Jong Eun.