One can often hear North Korea being described as a “Stalinist state.” Although the DPRK of the present day is quite different from the USSR of Joseph Stalin, this definition is still mostly accurate.

Many of these who see such a description might assume that the DPRK still has some cult of Stalin with him being portrayed as a great predecessor of Kims – much as Stalin himself created a cult of Marx, Engels and Lenin. However, this is not so.