George Orwell's book "1984" (written 1948 and prior to the formation of North Korea) outlines a state eerily similar to North Korea with its erasure of people's past, punishment for not clapping enthusiastically and generally for "dreaming different dreams", as this article puts it. It's disturbing to see these kind of states still managing to transfer their totalitarian systems from generation to generation with no foreseeable hope of a positive change.