Cults and Personalities

North Korea's communist dynasty is in the news again, with the latest Dear Leader, Kim Jong-un, purging his perceived enemies including his uncle, Chang Song-thaek who was taken out of a communist party meeting and shot - after a trial lasting all of one day.

The scene was reminiscent of a famous meeting of the Ba'ath Party in Iraq many years ago when a young Saddam Hussein sprang a surprise on his political rivals - who were publicly dragged out by Iraqi security forces before being tortured and killed.  

The language being used to denounce and justify the murder of Chang Song-thaek is like something out of an episode of Monty Python - except without the humour.

The North Korean Government described Chang as 'a traitor for all ages', 'despicable human scum' and 'worse than a dog' before going on to explain his fall from grace in the following statement:

No Room for Factionists to Live in: News Analyst

Pyongyang, December 12 (KCNA) -- The army and people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea are now stepping up the general march towards the final victory in the drive for the building of a thriving nation, getting closely united around Marshal Kim Jong Un. In the course of achieving the unity of the Workers' Party of Korea and the revolutionary ranks on a high level, the recent enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the WPK fully laid bare the anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional acts of the chance elements and alien elements who had made their ways into the party. The meeting held on December 8 dealt a decisive blow at dangerous factional acts by resolutely purging Jang Song Thaek and his group that dared expand its forces in the party to challenge the party in a bid to undermine the unitary leadership of the party in the historic period of carrying forward the revolutionary cause of Juche. The purge of the present-day factionists is inevitability of history. Committing factional acts only leads to splitting the revolutionary ranks and helping the enemy of the revolution. From its outset, the Korean revolution has witnessed the uncompromising struggle against factionists harming the unity of the revolutionary ranks, and only victories with the history of the unity. The DPRK army and people are now advancing toward the rosy future of a thriving socialist nation, single-heartedly rallied around Kim Jong Un. In this new era of the Juche revolution, there is no room for a handful of political careerists and factionists to live in. The Korean people followed President Kim Il Sung only with absolute trust in him in difficult days of the Fatherland Liberation War (June 25, 1950-July 27, 1953) and postwar rehabilitation in which factionists became evermore vicious in their moves against the WPK.  During the Arduous March, the forced march, they cheerfully broke through manifold hardships with a firm conviction that the rosy future was in store only when they were guided by leader Kim Jong Il. The Korean people dealt heavy blows to the counter-revolutionary factionists going against the WPK in the last century. They have further cemented the single-minded unity of the revolutionary ranks after turning the bitter sorrow at the loss of the President into strength and courage with a firm determination as shown by the song "Hold High the Red Flag". The tradition of the single-minded unity has creditably been carried forward by the coming generations. The revolutionary cause of Juche pioneered in Mt. Paektu is successfully making a progress under the guidance of Kim Jong Un, who keeps in his mind the brilliant traditions provided by the peerlessly great persons of Mt. Paektu as the lifeline, most precious property and permanent lineage of the Korean revolution. The single-minded unity is the mainstay for accomplishing the revolutionary cause of Juche. The purge of the factionists who challenged the party and revolution, country and people makes the unity of the revolutionary ranks purer and closer. Invincible is the harmonious whole of the party, army and people, closely rallied around the leader with the same idea and will. Juche, by the way, is a new calendar, unique across the globe since its creation by Kim Il Sung and starts from the year of his birth. So unlike the rest of the world North Korea is in the Juche Year 102, Kim Il Sung having been born in 1911. Now while we can all have a good laugh about this madness that has infected North Korea, it seems to me that other countries and political figures are playing a similar game - trying to enslave their people with a mixture of mumbo jumbo and wild rhetoric. Nicolas Maduro, the President of Venezuela, springs to mind - why else would he start seeing visions of the country's former leader, Hugo Chavez, who paid a visit to Maduro recently (allegedly) in the form of a little blue bird.   If you asks me, the cult of the personality that is being whipped up around Hugo Chavez is little different to the way that North Korea keeps the dynasty of Kim Il Sung in place - except without the violence, so far at least.