DPRK in the 1960s and 70s

Kim Hyun Hee painted a revealing account of life in North Korea during the 1960s and 70s in her memoirs The Tears of My Soul (William Morrow and Company, 1993).

A daughter of a senior North Korean official, Kim remembered growing up privileged as her family lived in an apartment and "always had cooking oil in the house to be able to fry food."

"I would later learn that cooking oil was very common in the South, and that everyone could fry food," Kim wrote.

Growing up, Kim remembered how she was imbued with fearful anti-American sentiments and constantly warned of imminent attacks by "the Yankee Imperialists."

After the sinking of the USS Pueblo (pictured) in January 1968, Kim recalled that the atmosphere in Pyongyang became tense amid rumors of a possible outbreak of war with the United States. Families reportedly began to pack food and clothes and even prepared to evacuate the city.

During this period, two of Kim Il Sung's close advisers, Ho Bonghak and Kim Changbong were purged. This was followed by a government-issued order to remove their names from school textbooks.

"In typical Orwellian fashion we would in unison all blot out their names with black ink or carve them out with a penknife. They have become "unpeople.""

When Kim Il Sung ordered women not to wear pants in summer, children would reportedly patrol the streets and "carefully check the clothes of pedestrians."

"If anyone had forgotten to wear their Kim Il Sung pins on their jackets, we children would demand their names, and they would be reported immediately to their supervisors at work."

Children were also told that to defeat the "American imperialists", they had to gather scrap iron, bottles and other recyclable products that could be sold for foreign currency. Quotas were assigned and those who failed to do so were publicly admonished, while collecting the most scrap turned out to be "a great source of competition" among the children.

"We were also instructed to search … and collect the skins of rabbits and dogs, as well as (to this day I don’t recall why) maggots. Maggots were most commonly found in the dung heaps at the public outhouses, where the toilets did not flush, and again we competed intensely. As for the dung itself, we were also required to collect that! When great heaps had been accumulated, they were eventually shipped to farmers for use as fertilizers, and each person would be graded according to the quantity and quality of the dung collected. Later on, when rationing tickets were issued, those grades with which we had been rewarded were taken into account."

Speaking of grades, Kim recalled that in school, everyone’s grades were publicly displayed, and that there were four subjects in school – revolution, academics, labor and ethics.

Hmm, how much of Kim’s account still remains relevant today?