People are so accustomed to a country’s main holiday being their foundation day or independence day that some media and even tour companies that work with the North occasionally report that September 9 in North Korea – their national foundation day – is the country’s “main national holiday.” Like the statement that Kim Yong Nam is somehow the country’s “de-jure head of state,” this sort of became another dubious-but-accepted fact about the country.

In fact, however, it is Kim Jong Un who is the head of state and Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il’s birthdays are the