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The North Korean cult of personality surrounding North Korea's ruling family, the Kims, has existed in North Korea for decades and can be found in many examples of North Korean culture.〔Choe, Yong-ho., Lee, Peter H., and de Barry, Wm. Theodore., eds. ''Sources of Korean Tradition'', Chichester, NY: Columbia University Press, p. 419, 2000.〕 Although it is not officially recognized by the North Korean government, there are often stiff penalties for those who criticize or do not show "proper" respect for the regime. The personality cult began soon after Kim Il-sung took power in 1948, and was greatly expanded after his death in 1994. While other countries have had cults of personality to various degrees (such as Joseph Stalin's in the Soviet Union), the pervasiveness and extreme nature of North Korea's personality cult surpasses that of Stalin or Mao Zedong. The cult is also marked by the intensity of the people's feelings and devotion to their leaders. ==Background== The cult of personality surrounding the Kim family requires total loyalty and subjugation to the Kim family and establishes the country as a one-man dictatorship through successive generations. The 1972 constitution of the DPRK incorporates the ideas of Kim Il-sung as the only guiding principle of the state and his activities as the only cultural heritage of the people. According to ''New Focus International'', the cult of personality, particularly surrounding Kim Il-sung, has been crucial for legitimizing the family's hereditary succession, and Yong-soo Park noted in the Australian Journal of International Affairs that the "prestige of the Suryong (leader ) has been given the highest priority over everything else in North Korea". Kim Il-sung developed the political ideology of the Juche Idea, generally understood as ''self-reliance'', and further developed it between the 1950s and the 1970s. Juche became the main guide of all forms of thought, education, culture and life throughout the nation〔 〕 until Kim Jong-il introduced the Songun (military-first) policy, which augments the Juche philosophy〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Juche )〕 and has a great impact on national economic policies.〔 〕 At the 4th Party Conference held in April 2012, Kim Jong-un further defined Juche as the comprehensive thought of Kim Il-sung, developed and deepened by Kim Jong-il, therefore terming it as "Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism" and that it was "the only guiding idea of the party" and nation.〔 〕 North Korean authorities have co-opted portions of Christianity and Buddhism,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=North Korea: The Korean War and the Cult of Kim )〕 and adapted them to their own uses, while greatly restricting all religions in general as they are seen as a threat to the regime. An example of this can be seen in the description of Kim Il-sung as a god,〔 and Kim Jong-il as the son of a god or "Sun of the Nation",〔 evoking the father-son imagery of Christianity.〔 〕 According to author Victor Cha, during the first part of Kim Il-sung's rule, the state destroyed over 2,000 Buddhist temples and Christian churches which might detract from fidelity to Kim.〔 There is even widespread belief that Kim Il-sung "created the world" and that Kim Jong-il controlled the weather.〔 〕 Korean society, traditionally Confucian, places a strong emphasis on paternal hierarchy and loyalty. The Kims have taken these deeply held traditions and removed their spiritual component, replacing them with loyalty to the state and the ruling family in order to control the population.〔 〕 Despite the suppression of traditional religions, however, some have described Juche, sociologically, as the religion of the entire population of North Korea.〔 〕 According to a report by ''New Focus International'', the two major North Korean news publications (''Rodong Sinmun'' and the Korean Central News Agency) publish around 300 articles per month relating to the "cult of Kim".〔 〕 The report goes further and suggests that with the death of Kim Jong-il, the average North Korean citizen is growing weary of the vast amount of propaganda surrounding the Kims.〔 The DPRK government claims there is no cult of personality, but rather genuine hero worship.〔Jason LaBouyer ("When friends become enemies — Understanding left-wing hostility to the DPRK" ) Lodestar. May/June 2005: pp. 7–9. Korea-DPR.com. Retrieved 18 December 2007.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「North Korean cult of personality」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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