Byung-Ho Chung

Suffering and Smiling: Daily Life in North Korea, is a field report, rather than a theoretical account, of North Korean culture based on two decades of the author’s personal observation and contact with people, both within North Korea and abroad. Understanding the cultural and historical context of “suffering” and “smiling” is crucial to understanding the ongoing nuclear arms conundrum surrounding the Korean Peninsula.Suffering and smiling coexist in the everyday lives of North Koreans. The Arduous March of partisans led by Kim Il-Sung in the struggle against Imperial Japan was seen as a symbol of great suffering in the nation. Then, the widespread famine of the 1990s in North Korea was referred to as the Arduous March (gonan ui haengun). Throughout this period of national suffering, signs commanding the nation to smile could be seen across the country, their slogan reading: March with a smile though the roads are rough!The North Korea of today is fast changing, unbeknownst to the outside world. To understand and anticipate such changes, one must understand the norms and values that shape the behaviors of the people who make up North Korea. The concept of suffering and smiling can help us understand contemporary North Korean society and culture.

This timely, pathbreaking study of North Korea’s political history and culture sheds invaluable light on the country’s unique leadership continuity and succession. Leading scholars Heonik Kwon and Byung-Ho Chung begin by tracing Kim Il Sung’s rise to power during the Cold War. They show how his successor, his eldest son, Kim Jong Il, sponsored the production of revolutionary art to unleash a public political culture that would consolidate Kim’s charismatic power and his own hereditary authority. The result was the birth of a powerful modern theater state that sustains North Korean leaders’ sovereignty now to a third generation. In defiance of the instability to which so many revolutionary states eventually succumb, the durability of charismatic politics in North Korea defines its exceptional place in modern history. Kwon and Chung make an innovative contribution to comparative socialism and postsocialism as well as to the anthropology of the state. Their pioneering work is essential for all readers interested in understanding North Korea’s past and future, the destiny of charismatic power in modern politics, the role of art in enabling this power.