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The Hermit Kingdom of Korea may have opened its doors since the demise of the Japanese empire, but in many ways it’s more closed off than ever before. It’s a place of unspeakable horrors where smiling children perform pitch perfect violin recitals for the elites, knowing full well that a bum note could get their families thrown into concentration camps. The country’s cult of personality is so unlike anything the world has ever seen that it sounds like a work of fiction. It’s a strange cross between ‘1984’ and ‘The Truman Show’ where everyone performs, no one criticises and the rulers are always watching. Who are the rulers? The Kim family, whose dead ancestors remain very much in power in what the late Christopher Hitchens called a ‘necrocracy’. But how does a family keep this show running? How did they even rise to power? And will their grip on the nation last or is their way of life coming to an end? It’s time to learn How History Works by entering North Korea, the biggest family run dictators
