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This indoctrination results in young people aspiring to become soldiers to fight for the regime and their leader, believing that sacrificing their lives is their patriotic duty. The education system emphasizes loyalty, with failure to memorize and uphold regime-approved history and ideology leading to social ostracism or punishment.
Military Service and Its Disillusionment
At 17, Hung Lee was conscripted into the North Korean military—a mandatory service that lasted over three years. Inside the military, he describes spending a significant portion of time studying the regime's policies and history, with ideological training deeply embedded in daily routines. The military's actual combat capabilities, however, were grossly exaggerated.