Faith Nyasuguta
For 11 days, North Koreans have reportedly been prohibited from laughing as the totalitarian country commemorates the 10-year anniversary of the death of supreme leader Kim Jong-un’s father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il.
“During the mourning period, we must not drink alcohol, laugh or engage in leisure activities,” a resident of the northeastern city of Sinuiju informed Radio Free Asia’s Korean Service.
Even grocery shopping was banned on the exact day of the elder Kim’s death — December 17, the New York Post reported.
“In the past many people who were caught drinking or being intoxicated during the mourning period were arrested and treated as ideological criminals. They were taken away and never seen again,” the source added.
The supreme leader attended a ceremony with top officials at a palace where his father’s body lies in state while people across the country held commemorations.
“Even if your family member dies during the mourning period, you are not allowed to cry out loud and the body must be taken out after it’s over. People cannot even celebrate their own birthdays if they fall within the mourning period.”
Kim Jong Il, the second of the Kim family dynasty, had ruled North Korea for 17 years until his death.
On Friday, state television broadcasts showed people observing several moments of silence and bowing before portraits and statues of him, while air-raid sirens and car horns could be heard blaring and beeping in other footage.
Kim Jong Un was shown with hundreds of officials at a ceremony outside the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in the capital, Pyongyang, where the body of North Korea’s founding leader, Kim Il Sung, also lies in state under glass.
Since 1948, the three generations of the Kim family have ruled the country.
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