Cult of Personality

One of the weirdest parts of the trip was visiting the Kim il Sung Mausoleum. It used to be his official palace till his death, upon which it was sealed and turned into a mausoleum. Upon entering, we surrendered our wallets, cameras, passed through an array of metal scanners, and then covered our shoes with special socks so as to not defile “sacred ground”. We then proceeded to take a series of underground travelators (moving walkways) and escalators, the most impressive of which was a travelator that I estimated had to be at least 200m long.

We were ushered through hall after hall of artifacts of his life, most notably his collection honorary diplomas from various universities around the world. We were treated to a dramatic retelling of his passing (an excerpt: “… the peoples of the world stopped what they were doing, and wept at the passing of the Great Leader…”), and bowed to a huge statue of the elder Kim’s likeness. All of this culminated with us being ushered past a series of air jets, into the center crypt where the embalmed body of the Great Leader lay, flanked by military guards, bathed in red light, with melancholy battle music in the background.

Leaving the memorial via travelators in the opposite direction, we encountered an endless line of North Koreans in full military dress entering. Observing their cleanly cut hair and brand new uniforms, I guessed that a visit to the Great Leaders’ tomb was a once in a lifetime event, with various villages/provinces rostered to visit. It was especially weird on the longest travelator, with 20+ tourists on the travelator out, and an endless line of North Koreans on the travelator in. The opposing travelators gave us the luxury of eye contact; we were human beings living lives of vastly different circumstances, passing by each other like two ships in the night.