The following article is the sixth in a multipart series by Taylor Darby, a pseudonym for a foreign diplomat that worked in Pyongyang for an extended period of time before being forced to leave in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Views expressed in columns are exclusively the author’s own and do not represent those of NK News.

Ordinary North Koreans, generally speaking, just try to focus on their daily lives — work, school, family and leisure. But in between this lies an obligation to the state to participate in parades, demonstrations, commemorations, mass games and other highly choreographed and