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eunification<br />

According to our guides, reunification was something both<br />

the "South" and "north" wanted, but is prevented because of<br />

US Imperialist aggression. From what I could tell, citizens<br />

in Pyongyang believe that life in Seoul is not different from<br />

life in Pyongyang, and this horrible situation is due to US<br />

aggression.<br />

outside of Kaesong, we were taken to a military lookout<br />

point so we could see the concrete wall that the US Imperialists<br />

built to prevent reunification. Below is a painting of said<br />

concrete wall. The legend on the right has a bunch of facts<br />

basically representing the amount of resources used for this<br />

anti-reunification wall. The military officer explained how<br />

said resources could have have been used by the Korean people<br />

productively, which is ironic after seeing large concrete/<br />

marble structures dedicated to Kim Il Sung.<br />

He is everywhere. He's on the wall, he's on the ground,<br />

he's in the air, he's on (is) the statues, the papers, the TV. This<br />

is one aspect of the DPRK that Westerners get wrong or have<br />

a general misunderstanding about. We hear a lot about Kim<br />

Jong Il in the west, and we mistakenly refer to him as the Dear<br />

Leader. The "Dear Leader" refers to the eternal president of<br />

the DPRK: Kim Il Sung. His son (and his son) can never be<br />

president. They are "military generals" while Kim Il Sung will<br />

forever remain president of the DPRK. I noticed Wikipedia<br />

refers to Kim Jung Il as the Dear Leader, but impression I got<br />

from my guide was that he is simply the general.<br />

We visited the Kim Il Sung mausoleum, the single most<br />

sacred place in all of DPRK. The procedure for this place was<br />

nuts. We were taken to a waiting house which we then walked<br />

at least a mile underground — going up elevators, going down<br />

elevators. Formal dress was required and absolutely noTH-<br />

InG electronic was allowed. They searched for memory cards,<br />

cameras, everything. After a few more elevators, we walked<br />

through an "air blower" to remove dust and whatnot. We<br />

then got to this giant marble hallway with a GIAnT statue<br />

of Sung. We lined up five across, walked up to to the eternal<br />

President, paused for ten seconds and bowed. We then<br />

walked into the next room where the body of Kim Il Sung<br />

was resting and bowed in the same formation from the south,<br />

65

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