Behind North Korea's Tears

     Now you may have heard thaat recently the North Korean leader, Kim Jong, has died. You also may have seen the video of hundreds of citezans flooding the capital and wailing. It's a chorus of weeping, an unorganized display of emotional loss...or is it? According the Bradley Martin, author of "Behind North Korea's Tears" seems to feel that it was organized, or at least not genuine. He makes several good points, such as; koreans have been known to be emotional demonstrative even when the most cruel and self centered rulers passes away, the mourners were in the captial where usually only well off officials live, and that they wept just simply due to fear of punishment. After the death of a previous leader, “Most of the mourners were crying because they had been brainwashed by Kim Il Sung’s personality cult,” according to Hwang. “But there was also the fact that anything other than mourning was not allowed.” Personally, after watching the video I'll admit, some of it did seem a little eccentric and hard to believe, but more so did I feel a true genuine desperation from the mourners. They may not have liked the man, but now they have to seriously contemplate the future of North Korea. Sort of a Pochahontas "where do I go from here" kind of moment. While some observers and the author of this article may believe it was just a well-rehearsed display, I think there is some truth behind the tears. 

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