North Korea Prosecutes Mourners Who Cried 'Insincerely' After Kim Jong-il's Death
North Korea has begun persecuting those who did not appear genuinely emotional following their late leader's death.
Kim Jong-il, 69, died December 2011, and as the country's official mourning period has come to an end, authorities have begun punishing those who did not display genuine sadness, according to Mail Online.
North Korea, also referred to as Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is a single-party state led by the Korean Workers' Party and often receives criticism for what critics allege is complete social control over its citizens and a lack of human rights.
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"North Korea is by far the most totalitarian and controlling state I’ve ever visited ... It is by far the most oppressive nation in the world," prominent New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recently tweeted.
Although recent footage of North Korea has shown a sea of mourners after Kim Jong-il's death, authorities are concerned that some of its people were simply being insincere.
According to reports, officials have also targeted those who failed to attend their late leader's mourning services, those who tried to leave the country, and those who made phone calls.
Many are receiving unsympathetic sentences which includes a minimum of six months in labor camps, during what sources call authority "criticism sessions."
The Daily North Korea website confirms that, "The authorities are handing down at least six months in a labor-training camp to anybody who didn’t participate in the organized gatherings during the mourning period, or who did participate but didn’t cry and didn't seem genuine."
The controversial state, which sensors all media communication and reportedly bans cell phones, has also been accused of bullying "exhausted" citizens into embracing new leader Kim Jong-un, the son of Kim Jong-il.
"Every day from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. they have vehicles for broadcast propaganda parked on busy roads full of people going to and from work, noisily working to proclaim Kim Jong-un’s greatness," a source told Daily North Korea.
