ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the regime’s claims to the contrary, the culture lovingly preserved in North Korea is considerably different from that of pre-modern Korea. The northern half of Korea was historically the more industrial part, and at the time of division it had a strong Christian community. The hyper-nationalist and rigidly organized socialist society described by Helen-Louise Hunter began to take shape in the years following the Korean War, as Kim Il Sung eliminated the pro-Soviet and pro-Chinese factions and consolidated his rule into a true personalist dictatorship. The collapse of the public distribution system forced people to adapt and find creative coping mechanisms: selling off factory parts, collecting copper wire, other parts to sell, traveling to and from China in search of food, selling household goods in the jangmadang, and tending illegal private gardens in the mountains. Evidence from other collapsed Soviet bloc states suggests that the revival of traditional culture can play a huge role in political stabilization.
