If you can get your life ruined cause you told a joke about dear leader to your neighbor, who turned out to be an agent to the secret police, we have a problem.
but I know of documented cases where South Koreans have been arrested and had their lives ruined for saying they admire Kim Il-sung.
And this is in no way good and it is authoritarian. My parents both have had visits by cops back in the day because of the wrong apocryphal joke about our own dictator and placed under surveillance. My grandpa had to report to the cops on a regular basis, because one of his sons lived in the West.
The funny thing is that I can't point to an instance of this happening in North Korea (not saying it doesn't happen, I just simply don't know one way or the other), but I know of documented cases where South Koreans have been arrested and had their lives ruined for saying they admire Kim Il-sung.
And this is in no way good and it is authoritarian. My parents both have had visits by cops back in the day because of the wrong apocryphal joke about our own dictator and placed under surveillance. My grandpa had to report to the cops on a regular basis, because one of his sons lived in the West.
I can also think of several examples in Spain about our king.