Cult of personality

===North Korea===
{{Main|North Korean cult of personality}}
[[File:Kim Il-sung.jpg|thumb|left|North Korean poster featuring [[Kim Il-Sung]]]]

The cult of personality which surrounds [[North Korea]]'s ruling family, the [[Kim family (North Korea)|Kim family]],<ref>{{Cite news |last=Williamson |first=Lucy |date=December 27, 2011 |title=Delving into North Korea's mystical cult of personality |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16336991 |url-status=live |access-date=January 9, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130202083328/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16336991 |archive-date=February 2, 2013}}</ref> has existed for decades and it can be found in many aspects of [[North Korean culture]].<ref>Choe, Yong-ho., Lee, Peter H., and de Barry, Wm. Theodore., eds. ''Sources of Korean Tradition'', Chichester, NY: Columbia University Press, p. 419, 2000.</ref> Although not acknowledged by the [[North Korean government]], many [[North Korean defectors|defectors]] and [[Tourism in North Korea|Western visitors]] state there are often stiff penalties for those who criticize or do not show "proper" respect for the regime.<ref name="Forer">{{Cite web |last=Forer |first=Ben |date=January 12, 2012 |title=North Korea Reportedly Punishing Insincere Mourners |url=https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/01/north-korea-reportedly-punishing-insincere-mourners/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414203420/https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/01/north-korea-reportedly-punishing-insincere-mourners/ |archive-date=April 14, 2012 |access-date=January 9, 2013 |publisher=ABC News}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=December 2, 2011 |title=DPRK, Criminal Penalties |url=https://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_988.html#criminal_penalties |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130101184313/http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_988.html |archive-date=January 1, 2013 |access-date=January 9, 2013 |publisher=US State Dept}}</ref> The personality cult began soon after [[Kim Il Sung]] took power in 1948, and was greatly expanded after [[Death and state funeral of Kim Il Sung|his death]] in 1994.

The pervasiveness and the extreme nature of North Korea's personality cult surpasses [[Joseph Stalin's cult of personality|those of Joseph Stalin]] and [[Mao Zedong's cult of personality|Mao Zedong]].<ref name="Armstrong 2013 222">{{Cite book |last=Armstrong |first=Charles K. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eUf-_XACg3UC&pg=PA222 |title=The North Korean Revolution, 1945–1950 |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-0801468797 |location=Ithaca |page=222}}</ref> The cult is also marked by the intensity of the people's feelings for and devotion to their leaders,<ref name="HelenHunter">{{Cite book |last=Hunter |first=Helen-Louise |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lrz5OJvCkmIC&pg=PA25 |title=Kim Il-song's North Korea |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=1999 |isbn=978-0275962968 |page=25 |access-date=August 31, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140111161606/http://books.google.com/books?id=lrz5OJvCkmIC&pg=PA25 |archive-date=January 11, 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref> and the key role played by a Confucianized ideology of [[familism]] both in maintaining the cult and thereby in sustaining the regime itself. The North Korean cult of personality is a large part of [[Juche]] and [[totalitarianism]].

[[Yakov Novichenko]], a Soviet military officer who saved Kim Il Sung's life on 1 May 1946, is reported to also have developed a cult of personality around 1984. He is considered the only non-Korean to have developed a cult of personality there.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Young |first=Benjamin R. |date=2013-12-12 |title=Meet the man who saved Kim Il Sung's life |url=https://www.nknews.org/2013/12/meet-the-man-who-saved-kim-il-sungs-life/ |access-date=2023-05-08 |website=[[NK News]] |language=en-US}}</ref> {{clear left}}