Flowers

Mallick: Kimjongilia's bitter scent

12.02.12

Is also a 2009 documentary on the handful of North Koreans who have managed to cross the border into China, hunted by both countries and tortured by their memories. Kimjongilia is one ironic floral melody.

The tears of North Koreans upon learning of Kim Jong-il’s death? They’re a replay of the last time a member of this repellent family died. That was Kim Il-sung in 1994 and the national cult demanded an orgy of grief. The massive food shortages caused by the collapse of the Soviet empire were already turning North Koreans bony. But imagine being born into the cult and taught that Kim Il-sung was basically your benevolent dad. Of course you weep.

Forget the slave camps, executions, spying, constant gnawing hunger and permanent fear. People flocked to the 34,000 statues of Kim Il-sung bearing chrysanthemums, the official flower of death. “The histrionics of grief took on a competitive quality,” Demick wrote. “Who could weep the loudest? Who was the most distraught?” TV broadcast hours of “people wailing, grown men with tears rolling down their cheeks, banging their head on trees.”

Source: Toronto Star