According to multiple reports, North Korea is going to punish insincere mourners.
An unnamed source has come forward to tell multiple media outlets in South Korea that “authorities are handing down at least six months in a labor-training camp to anybody who didn’t participate in the organized gatherings.” The organized gatherings were held to mourn Supreme Leader Kim Jong Il’s death. The punishment will also be issued to those mourners “who did participate but didn’t cry and didn’t seem genuine.”
It has also been reported that some mourners who appeared not to be sincere in their mourning have already been transported to labor camps in North Korea that already house 200,000 other citizens. A report issued back in May by Amnesty International claims that close to 40 percent of inmates die of malnutrition at these camps in North Korea.
An official number of mourners that will be sent to the camps is unknown but many expect the number to be in the thousands.
The announcement for the punishment occurred just days after it was announced that the body of Kim Jong Il will be on permanent display in Pyongyang’s Kumsusan Memorial Palace. His father, Kim Il Sung, the previous leader of North Korea, was displayed in the same manner. The Supreme Leader will also have a statute erected to salute him in the country.
February 16, the birthday of the late Supreme Leader, will be observed as “the Day of the Lodestar.”
Kim Jong Un, the son of Kim Jong Il, has worked tirelessly to establish himself as the reincarnation of his grandfather. Another unnamed source said that “Every day from 7am until 7pm they have vehicles for broadcast propaganda parked on busy roads full of people going to and from work, noisily working to proclaim Kim Jong Un’s greatness.”