A guide to voting in North Korea

Source: Japan Probe

Youtube Link

As British Ambassador to North Korea Peter Hughes has graciously pointed out, North Korea recently held a fantastically fun election in which 99% of voters turned out and voted 100% approval upon Kim Jong-Il.

To give a closer look at the grand democracy taking place in North Korea, Japan’s NTV news had a man who once lived in the country reconstruct a typical voting booth scene. The instructions shown in the video are as follows:

1. Enter the voting room and bow to the staff person as you receive a voting card.
2. Your voting card will have Kim Jong-Il’s name printed on it. Old voting cards used to have ” [ ] Approve [ ] Disapprove” boxes one can select, but those cards were abolished in favor of the far more simple support cards.
3. There is a red pen on a side table that you may use to change your voting card to an anti-Kim Jong-il vote. There is a member of the secret police monitoring you as you vote, so the mere act of glancing at the red pen could get you in trouble. If you want to live until the next election, ignore the red pen.
4. To cast your vote, take your card and place it into the box. You must show your respect by bowing before the portraits of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-il as you vote. Use both hands when placing the card in the box.

Everyone must vote. To keep the voter turnout percentage as high as possible, travel permits are heavily restricted in the month leading up to the election and those who are missing on election day may be officially declared dead.