Author Christopher Hitchens spent part of 2010 in North Korea. After his return, he told a conference: “I knew what I would not say about North Korea. I'm not going to say it, school children go to school carrying photos of the dear leader and the great leader. The loudspeakers only speak about the dear leader and the great leader. In the workplace, sessions are reserved every day for cries of hatred against the United States, the West and South Korea. I'm still not going to do it. They won't make me say 1984, they just won't make me do it. But ultimately, they force you to (LibertyPen). Christopher Hitchens makes an interesting observation about the current state of North Korea, and what he saw is exactly what is shown to the audience. It is more than likely impossible for the West to know how the world is working for North Korean proletarians. Totalitarian states use two methods to control the people. Propaganda and fear. Propaganda works best in a mostly closed system, like North Korea, because they can't see if the government is lying to the outside world. When the government says: “Our neighbors have it worse, they only have one pound of rice per month,” people have no reason to doubt it and they are content with their two pounds. North Korea is a great example of this because the government teaches the population that all other neighboring countries are jealous of the hard work and amount of food the North Korean people have. The North Korean government has carefully developed a cult of personality around its leaders Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong-Il and currently Kim-Jong-Un. Recently there was a case of a fourteen year old girl dying in a flood trying to save a piece of paper that I could make, and at the same time he made it seem realistic. 1984 lasts today thanks to the talent of the writer behind it. Works Cited Rose, Jonathan. “The invisible sources of 1984”, Ebsco Literary Reference Center. Wiley-Blackwell. Internet. February 11, 2013. Parker, Peter. “1984.” A reader's guide to the 20th century novel. New York: Oxford UP, 1995. 289. Print.LibertyPen. "Christopher Hitchens - North Korea" Video clip online. YouTube. YouTube, December 23, 2009. Web. 14. March 2013. Dalvai, M. (2010), “Utopianism parodied in Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. An intertextual reading of Goldstein's Treatise. Orbis Litterarum, 65: 388-407. Ebscohost. Internet. February 13, 2013. Barr, Julian. “The New York Review of Books.” Such was Eric Blair by Julian Barnes. Np, February 28, 2009. Web. March 13. 2013.