This is Randi Hacker with another Postcard from Asia from the KU Center for East Asian Studies.

No country does the cult of personality quite as well as North Korea. It started with Kim Il Sung who is still revered as the Dear Leader and Eternal President and whose image can be seen everywhere. It continued with Kim Jong Il, whose birth was retrofitted with heroic events like a double rainbow and who is known as the Great Leader. And it is already beginning with Kim Jong Un, the third generation in a hereditary leadership more dynastic than communistic. He is being called the Great Successor and is widely admired for his uncanny resemblance to his grandfather. Right now, there are two official flower cultivars in the state botanical garden: Kimilsungia and Kimjongilia. How long before we see a Kimjongunia join them?

From the Center for East Asian Studies, I’m Randi Hacker. Wish you were here.