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| Korea |
| Great leader’s shrine a monument to kitsch |
| 2003-10-31 |
| Kim Il-sung looked at me, slightly hunched forward and arms out, as though ready to reach out and embrace. Behind him, the sunlit panorama of lake, mountains, and forest of blossoming fruit trees added to the uplifting aura around him. This was odd, seeing that Kim has been dead for nine years, and his country is now heading into another grim winter rather than any kind of spring. Nonetheless, around me a phalanx of North Koreans lined up in rows, and at the cue of their stern-faced guide, bowed deeply from the waist in unison towards the wax effigy. As expectant faces turned, The Age managed an awkward nod. Nod or else Deep in a mountain valley, two hours drive north of the capital Pyongyang on an empty four-lane highway, stands an elaborate pagoda-style building that is one of the chief shrines to the dictator who founded North Korea’s communist republic. In death, Kim has become North Korea’s "Eternal Leader". His son Kim Jong-il has assumed his power as head of the army and Communist Party, and taken over the title of "Great Leader". Kim’s embalmed corpse is on view in a mausoleum in Pyongyang only to a few selected guests. North Korea’s cult-masters instead have opted for enhanced, virtual reality for the masses. "Welcome to Kimmyland!" At the Mount Myohyang shrine, the 2000 daily visitors are taken to a giant windowless room where a white marble Kim sits in a huge chair. This is the first bow. The wax Kim, supplied by a Chinese firm, is the second, in its own room. It is distinctly slimmer and taller than life, and lacks the large growth that Kim sported on the back of his neck. Eeeuuuuwwww!!!! The rest of the building is occupied by some of the 217,444 gifts given to Kim by foreign visitors and well-wishers going back to Stalin and Mao. This "International Friendship Exhibition" is cited as evidence of the enormous worldwide respect for Kim Il-sung. In a second pagoda, built at an estimated cost of $A300 million between 1995 and 1997, which was the height of a famine that killed up to 2 million North Koreans, gifts for current leader Kim Jong-il are piling up fast - they totalled 51,518 presents from 161 countries as of last week. As a collection of kitsch, it is probably incomparable. There are carved eagles, the skins of leopards, candle-holders and totems. Those from Western visitors are small and modest: a crystal ashtray from former US president Jimmy Carter, who came to Who would be the first to be closed under Kim II. If North Korea today presents the listless, shabby appearance of the Soviet Union briefly in the 1980s, this must be partly due to the fact it is partly still ruled by a dead man. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #3 It's no Dollywood, that's for sure! |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2003-10-31 7:08:22 PM |
| #2 Get the fact's straight, bub. Big Kimmie's the "Great Leader", Little Kim's the "Dear Leader". Unless they changed it and didn't send me the memo. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-10-31 3:00:11 PM |
| #1 There is a fasinating article about one person's actual visit to 'Kimland' at 1stopkorea.com. This is by an American (who resides in South Korea) who visited 'Kimland' via Bejing China: (From the website). When was the last trip you took where: * the guide wouldn't allow you to keep your passport? * you weren't allowed to use the local currency? * criticism of the place you traveled could get a guide into serious trouble? * on your return you felt you had to be careful bringing back books, pins and T-shirts because they might be illegal? All this and more can be yours with a trip to the DPRK, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Orwellian Country Names, better known as North Korea. In an age where you can get Starbucks on Thai islands, Baskin-Robbins in Saigon, Coke and McDonalds just about everywhere, it's nice to finally visit a place lacking even the knowledge of such things. The most end-of-the-earth Chinese villager knows of Michael Jordan. In North Korea our big city Pyongyang guides had no clue who he was - until we pointed out his name on an autographed basketball in the Gifts to Kim Jong-il Museum. Then they were sure he must be someone really important. A mere basketball player? No way! |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2003-10-31 12:14:11 PM |