North Korean authorities are reviving an old loyalty song to teach young people that happiness comes only from following Kim Jong Un. Officials are stepping up ideological crackdowns and loyalty education among young people. They consider the group especially vulnerable to outside cultural influence, sources say.
A source in North Korea’s South Hamgyong province told Daily NK on Tuesday that Youth League branches across Hamhung began a coordinated campaign on July 9. The campaign spanned factories and enterprises citywide. The campaign centers on the song “I Think.” The order came from the Hamhung city committee of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League. The league is the state youth organization responsible for ideological education of North Koreans in their teens and twenties.
The song campaign formed part of broader ideological education aimed at young people. Youth League branches required members to memorize the lyrics in full, the source said. Branch leaders then explained the meaning behind key phrases. Loyalty to the supreme leader and the party ran through every explanation, the source added.
Loyalty song ties happiness to obedience
In broad terms, the song follows a narrator looking out a lit window at night, wondering where happiness comes from. The verses answer that question by pointing to the party’s guidance. They describe it in imagery such as a glow from party headquarters and a path already marked out by the leadership. The final verse ties the narrator’s happiness and future entirely to the party’s embrace. It closes with a pledge to follow the party forever.
The song ties the party and leader’s guidance directly to personal happiness and the future, the source said. It instills a belief that happiness is possible only through absolute dependence on the party and its leader. The idea is meant to bind young people together ideologically. In effect, the campaign pressures young people into blind loyalty, demanding they look to the supreme leader and the party alone.
The Youth League chairman explained the lyrics and taught members to sing with the marshal in mind, the source said. The marshal is an honorific military title commonly used to refer to Kim Jong Un. The chairman noted that the song originally evoked North Korea’s two previous leaders, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. “This time, every explanation focused solely on the marshal,” the source said.
This can also be read as part of a broader effort to elevate Kim Jong Un to the same absolute-leader status once held by his father and grandfather. The approach effectively erases generational distinctions and reinforces a personality cult built around him.
“Many of our songs emphasize loyalty to the party and the leader,” the source said. Bringing back “I Think” and distributing it so widely this time carries a clear political purpose, according to the source. The goal is to make young people internalize a single idea: happiness and the future lie only in following the marshal. Officials hope this will prevent any ideological drift among them.
Reporting from inside North Korea
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July 15, 2026 at 06:53PM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)