How genuine are the tears in North Korea?

The outpouring of grief in North Korea after the passing of Kim Jong-il has been fervent and widespread. So are the people sincerely feeling this loss or are they behaving as they think they should?

The North Korean nation took its cue from the state television presenter who was dressed in black and barely able to hold back the tears.

There followed tears, wailing and fists beaten against the pavement, but on a huge scale.

Men and women have been swept along on a wave of uncontrollable hysteria. "How could he leave us?" said one woman as she wiped away the tears.

The scenes were reminiscent of the mourning that followed the death of Kim Jong-il's father, Kim Il-sung, in 1994. So how genuine is the grief?

It's very difficult to know, says Anthony Daniels, a psychiatrist and writer whose pen name is Theodore Dalrymple. He visited North Korea in 1989 as a member of the British delegation to the International Festival of Youth and Students. Read More