Color the land red for revolution
With one hand lifting up the falling sky, with the other holding up a glinting scimitar, by one lightning stroke he shakes the whole earth." Thus, in language that might have made Mao Tse-tung blush, does one popular song in North Korea stress the godlike omnipotence of President Kim II Sung, 67. As shrewd and tough as he is vainglorious, Kim since 1948 has been the dictator of a belligerent, doctrinaire state that for sheer xenophobia is rivaled only by Albania inside the Communist world. In pursuit of his goal of reuniting the Korean peninsula under his rule, Kim has gingerly begun to open up his country to the West. Two weeks ago, North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, was the site of the world table tennis championships and reunification talks between Kim and United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim. Among the few American reporters who have been allowed to travel inside North Korea is TIME Tokyo Bureau Chief Edwin Reingold. His report:
Pyongyang is a mecca for every true son and daughter of the new socialist Korea, and red, appropriately, seems to be the city's favorite color. There is red in the paint freshly applied to the showcase capital, as well as in the cherry and plum trees that fill the parks and line the streets. "Oh, our Pyongyang," sings the chorus in one revolutionary opera. "Beautiful is the red socialist capital. With boundless joy we have come to the Pyongyang we have always longed for. Our leader is here in the revolutionary capital, which is the fountainhead of all our happiness."
The city abounds in parks, playgrounds, monuments and museums dedicated to Kim II Sung. The architecture of public buildings is monumental in scale; lobbies are hung with crystal chandeliers that soar to dizzying heights, while no ceiling seems lower than 15 feet. Statues and busts of Kim are everywhere, as are portraits of him gazing watchfully down on his people.
And they are his people. The litany of praise for Kim and all his works is astonishing; it is a cult of personality without parallel. Kim has been endowed with the attributes of an immortal: he can be in more than one place at the same time, can travel distances at unheard-of speed, and knows all there is to know. In its zeal to create a living legend, North Korea has preserved a bewildering variety of Kim memorabilia: mats he sat on, pencils he used, even an empty jar that had once held kimchi (the potent, spicy relish made from fermented cabbage), which he once "looked into" while visiting a peasant family. Surprisingly, North Koreans know little about the private life of their great father-teacher. Most people do not know the name of his wife (Kim Sung Ae) or how many children he has (at least two). They are, however, aware of his eldest son, Kim Jong II, 36, a party functionary. The official publicity campaign on his behalf suggests that Kim the younger is being groomed to succeed his father.