Kyung-soon Ko woke every morning to the songs of her nation.  The previous night, she had programmed her alarm clock to awaken her to the beloved hymn, “We Sing of His Benevolent Love”, which was homage to the Great Leader, Kim-Il Sung.  This happened every day at 5 am, even on Saturdays and Sundays.  On the wall facing the end of her small bed was a large banner that read:

“MAN IS THE MASTER OF EVERYTHING AND DECIDES EVERYTHING”. 

This was the main philosophy of Kimilsungism that was the undercurrent of all things in North Korea.  Kyung-soon reminded herself every morning of the continuous struggle to free the Korean peninsula from sloppy and selfish Western imperialism and reunite the Korean people under one waving flag of solidarity.  Just under this larger banner were three smaller ones in support.  They read:

       Chaju or independence in politics

          Charip or self-sustenance in the economy

          Chawi or self-defense in national defense

These banners were the daily reminder of the basic tenets of North Korean life and would hopefully be the banners that all Korean people woke up to some day…soon. 

As she put her feet on the floor and massaged the sleep from her face, she peaked at her night stand.  On it laid a tattered copy of “The Flower Girl”, which was a novel that was inspired and supposedly written by The Great Leader.  Kyung-soon remembered that she had not read it in some time and it would be best to start again soon.  Her next reading would be her 33rd and she promised herself to read it 82 times, once for each year of the Great Leader’s life.  The story recounted the suffering of a servant girl who was abused by her evil landlord.  Eventually, she tires of his abuse and joins the resistance to overthrow the cruel capitalist regime and the landlord is punished for his transgressions.  The metaphor was so simplistic and obvious that even the vastly uneducated and illiterate people of North Korea would understand who the Flower Girl really was.  Those that were educated would benefit from the rosy colored, utopian world it promised like children who understood arithmetic but were able to suspend their rational minds when hearing a fairy tale.  Kyung-soon was one of the educated, one of those who could collate intricate data and at the same time believe that Kim Il-Sung and his son, Kim Jong-Il were able to stop the rain and bring out the sun, should they wish it.