The Hermit Kingdom: 10 Bizarre Realities of North Korean Society

The Hermit Kingdom: 10 Bizarre Realities of North Korean Society

The DPRK, better known as North Korea, is probably the most controlled and isolated society in the world. Governed by a totalitarian regime and guided by the philosophy of self-reliance, *Juche*, it is a society with a set of rules and norms that are incomprehensible to the outside world. For outsiders, its social fabric is a tapestry woven with threads of extreme ideology, pervasive state control, and a personality cult bordering on the theological. Understanding these quirks means peering into a society that has been meticulously engineered for decades.

Here are ten facets of North Korean society that, to outsiders, might seem utterly strange, and the logic—however dystopian—that makes them normal within the Hermit Kingdom.

#### 1. The Divine Bloodline: The Mount Paektu Bloodline and the Ten Commandments

In most societies, political leadership is a secular position. Yet in North Korea, the Kim family is a divine bloodline, with the sacred Mount Paektu, a volcano on the Chinese border and considered the spiritual birthplace of the Korean people, as its direct ancestry. The leadership isn't only political; it's genealogical and holy.

It is institutionalized into the so-called "Ten Principles for the Establishment of a Monolithic Ideological System," a document even more sacred than the national constitution. These principles require absolute loyalty to the Kim family: the Great Leader, his son, and his grandson must be upheld as unquestionable, god-like figures. Every citizen is supposed to study these principles, and a violation is not a political crime but a form of blasphemy. This system makes politics a state religion, with control through spiritual devotion rather than fear.

2. The "Cult of Personality" as a Total Reality

We are familiar with political propaganda, but the North Korean cult of personality is all-encompassing to a degree that is difficult to fathom. Every single citizen without exception must wear a Kim Il-sung or Kim Jong-il badge pinned over their heart. These badges are not optional accessories; they are a visible manifestation of one's loyalty and are distributed based on one's political standing.

The leaders are also credited with supernatural powers from their birth: official biographies claim Kim Jong-il could walk and talk at a few weeks old and wrote six operas and 1,500 books during his three years at university, while Kim Jong-un is reported in state media to have achieved a perfect score in his first time playing golf. This is not considered propaganda by the population; it is presented as-and often taken to be-actual fact, building into a reality in which the leaders are infallible, otherworldly beings.

#### 3. The Social Classification System: Songbun

In the country that espouses communism, North Korea maintains a strict, hereditary caste system called *Songbun*. All citizens are categorized at birth into one of three core classes: the "core" (loyal elite), the "wavering" (basic masses), and the "hostile" (impure elements). This division is based on the family's perceived loyalty to the regime since the 1950s.

Your *Songbun* determines everything: where you can live, what school you can attend, what job you can have, and even whom you can marry. It is virtually impossible to change your *Songbun*. A person from the "hostile" class, perhaps because their grandfather fought for the South, can never join the military or live in the capital, Pyongyang, no matter their personal merit. In this way, the system freezes society into a hierarchical grid and punishes the "sins of the father" for generations in order to maintain state control.

#### 4. State-Approved Hairstyles

In a bizarre manifestation of control over personal expression, the North Korean government has issued from time to time a catalog of state-approved hairstyles. There are about 18 styles for women and even fewer choices for men. Kim Jong-il's puffy, bouffant style was for many years the only permissible model for men; this has eased somewhat under Kim Jong-un.

The reasoning has its roots in the *Juche* ideology's rejection of foreign influence and "decadent" styles. It is also a method of enforcing uniformity and eradicating individualism. Your haircut is a political declaration of your adherence to state norms. A non-conforming hairstyle is not a fashion statement; it is a political gesture of defiance.

#### 5. The Calendar That Reset Time

Practical applications notwithstanding, North Korea uses the Gregorian calendar, while its official state calendar is the system called the *Juche* calendar. This system begins in 1912, the year of Kim Il-sung's birth. The current year, 2024, is *Juche* 113. All official documents, newspapers, and publications use this dating system.

It is a deep psychological impact. The birth of Kim Il-sung was the Year Zero, marking a true beginning. In effect, all of the past had been erased and the nation's entire temporal identity given focus in its eternal leader. Nothing of significance had previously existed.

#### 6. A Capital City for the Elite

Pyongyang is not just the capital of North Korea; it is a meticulously curated stage set. Residence in Pyongyang is a privilege, not a right. Only those with the most impeccable *Songbun*-the "core" class-are permitted to live there. Individuals can be "de-Pyongyanged" for political misconduct, their entire family exiled to the impoverished countryside.

The city has been designed to project an image of power, modernity, and happiness to the few foreigners allowed in and to its own elite. This gives the appearance of an immaculate, metropolitan-scale Potemkin village, hiding widespread poverty and malnutrition throughout the rest of the country with its wide, clean boulevards, monumental architecture, and sporadic, perfectly lit apartments at night.

#### 7. The Illusion of a Market Economy: Don't Mention the Money

Although state ideology condemns capitalism, the economic collapse in the 1990s resulted in tacit tolerance of informal markets, known as *jangmadang*. Today, a new generation of North Koreans becomes entrepreneurs, and a class of rich people is emerging. This creates, however, a cognitive dissonance.

You can be rich, but you must not appear rich due to personal ambition. Wealth should be attributed to the magnanimity of the state or the leader himself. Being too flashy can attract the wrong kind of envy among officials or be interpreted as a challenge to the state's ideological purity. So, while a new elite does drive cars and buys imported goods, they do so discreetly, trying to make their way around the contradiction between the state's socialist rhetoric and its capitalist reality.

#### 8. The Sealed Border and Public Executions

The North Korean border with China is one of the most heavily fortified in the world, designed not just to keep people out but also to keep people in. Attempting to cross this border without permission is viewed as treason and punishable by severe labour camp sentences or even death.

Even more shocking to the outside world is the practice of public executions. These are not clandestine events: Citizens, including schoolchildren, are sometimes forced to attend executions of those convicted of "crimes against the state," such as attempting to flee the country, watching South Korean media, or practicing Christianity. The purpose is terror-to use the ultimate punishment as a visceral, public lesson on the cost of disloyalty.

#### 9. The Compulsory Military Service. for All

North Korea maintains one of the world's largest standing armies. Military service is compulsory for both men and women. The length of military service varies: men usually serve ten years or more, while women serve approximately seven years. In addition to filling the military ranks, this conscription is a very important vehicle for ideological indoctrination and social control.

This is where citizens learn absolute obedience and are introduced to the cult of the leadership. Military service also serves as a source of cheap labor for state construction projects. The system makes sure that a significant proportion of the population is under direct state discipline during at least the most formative years of their life. #### 10. The Controlled Information Ecosystem There is no internet in North Korea as we know it: there is a national intranet, *Kwangmyong*, a tightly sealed digital garden filled with state-approved information, propaganda, and educational material. All media-radio, television, newspapers-is state-controlled. Radios and TVs are pre-tuned to state frequencies, and tampering with them to receive foreign broadcasts is seriously punishable. The strangeness lies in the totality of the information control. Most North Koreans have no frame of reference for the outside world beyond what the state tells them. They live in a reality that has been completely constructed by this regime where their country is a paradise besieged by hostile enemies and their leaders are their divine protectors. In the end, what seems bizarre in North Korea is the logical conclusion of a system fit for one purpose above all else: the perpetuation of one family's rule. These ten realities are not random quirks; they are interlocking mechanisms of a giant social engine that runs on control, fear, and manufactured devotion. They reveal a society where the individual is fully subsumed by the state and where the bizarre has been normalized as a condition of survival.