Mick Hartley

From the Daily NK:

North Korea is forcing citizens to repeatedly watch a propaganda video called “The Policy of the Workers’ Party Is Good” that catalogues Kim Jong Un’s supposed achievements.

“Party organizations are scrambling to prepare for the midyear business review and the Central Committee plenary session in late June. They’re putting extra emphasis on studying this propaganda video right now,” a source in South Pyongan province told Daily NK recently.

The regime created the propaganda video as a follow-up to a song with the same title. Local party branches and neighborhood watch units are being forced to watch it over and over again.

Workers at a coal mine in Kaechon have been sitting through repeated political study sessions where they watch the video and then write personal essays about it, according to the source.

Just what you feel like after a long shift down the pit.

The video promotes Kim’s regional development policy by highlighting projects like the Kangdong county hospital and cultural complex, as well as a coastal fish farm in Ragwon county, as examples of his “loving attention and dedication.”

“The video calls Kim Jong Un’s leadership an ‘era of manifold blessings’ and claims ‘the dreams of the people are the dreams of our great leader,'” the source explained. “It heaps praise on the party’s regional development policy with phrases like ‘the people’s happiness is endless when policies are filled with love and kindness’ and ‘the people’s destiny is determined by policy.'”

People are not impressed.

But North Koreans who’ve watched the video are fed up with both its message and having to view it repeatedly at work and in their neighborhoods….

What particularly grates on North Koreans is that beyond watching these videos, they’re also expected to write essays demonstrating their loyalty and thanking Kim for his endless work and sacrifices for the people’s happiness.

“The videos call ordinary people patriots and heroes, but the real goal is getting people to endure their hardships. People have to fake enthusiasm and praise the party’s policies even though their lives stay exactly the same, which just leaves them more exhausted and frustrated,” the source said.

Well yes.

The picture accompanying the article – Kim Jong Un posing for a commemorative photo with participants of the Third National Meeting of Active Neighborhood Unit Leaders in March this year – shows another unacknowledged problem…

…the leader's unfortunate body odour. No one dares to mention it.