The italicized is from Grok:
In North Korea, the regime promotes a cult of personality around Kim Jong Un and his predecessors. The Kim family is portrayed as infallible, almost divine figures through state propaganda, with titles like "Great Leader" or "Dear Leader." This reverence is rooted in Juche ideology, which emphasizes national self-reliance and elevates the Kims as the embodiment of the state’s will. Portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il are mandatory in homes and public spaces, and citizens are expected to show ritualistic respect, like bowing or clapping at statues.
This is identical to modern day worship of Jesus and the pope being claimed to be infallible, as well as statues filling the churches and homes with humans bowing and saying the sign of the cross before those statues, as well as manger scenes and Jesus and Mary statuary in homes.
There are parallels between North Korea’s cult of personality around the Kim family and the Catholic Church’s influence in medieval Europe. Both systems used centralized authority, ritualistic devotion, and fear to maintain control. In medieval Catholicism, the Pope was seen as God’s infallible representative, with divine authority over spiritual and often temporal matters. People were expected to show reverence through rituals, icons, and obedience, with dissent (heresy) punished harshly—think Inquisition. Similarly, North Korea mandates displays of loyalty to the Kims, with propaganda and punishment (labor camps) for non-compliance.
Both leveraged ideology and fear to shape behavior, but North Korea’s system is more totalizing due to modern surveillance and propaganda tools. No direct data equates the two, but defectors’ accounts and medieval records (church decrees) highlight these dynamics.
