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Still, life is not all work and studies in Kim's thought. On a recent spring Sunday, boys and girls strolled along the capital's Taedong-Gang riverfront; the lady in charge of rowboat rentals blew her whistle constantly to keep the boats in order. A stream of ferryboats carried passengers up and down the river to several recreational grounds. Under the trees, groups of men studied textbooks while others huddled around and kibitzed on chess players. At Ryongwang-Jong Pavilion, girls in colorful silk costumes flirted with boys, took one another's picture or just chatted away like young women anywhere. For a moment, life in this quiet capital seemed naively wholesome, a 19th century tableau of delight in simple pleasures, unaware of any world beyond the self-proclaimed "workers' paradise" made in the shadow of the great and omnipresent leader.