Pyongyang residents given fish in memory of Kim Jong-il

[David__77]

5. That's a good description.

I was never a fan of the "Stockholm syndrome" thesis, but there's something to it. Here in Pyongyang, the "core citizens" have a real class privilege relative to those outside the large cities. Many look at a new dress, a tablecloth, an allotment of fish, and genuinely feel gratitude... But it is of course the product of their own labor - and a much smaller elite lives within walled off neighborhoods ringed with guard posts, with every modern convenience, cars with drivers, and house servants. No one except those residents will ever see those areas, and certainly not a foreigner.