Kings, emperors, palaces and warriors

Korea's Joseon dynasty lasted from 1392 until 1910, when the Japanese took over for a few decades. They are very proud of their long period of independence, and the Japanese annexation was regarded as a period of national catastrophe.

 

The Joseon emperors (most were kings at the time, but posthumously declared emperors after the Korean Empire was declared in 1897) built fine palaces and presumably lived very fine lifestyles. 

You can walk around several such palaces in Seoul today, meticulously restored and rather beautiful. Every hour or two there will be a 'changing of the guard' re-enactment ceremony. There will often be martial arts displays, lots of pageantry. It's all very colourful.

You're led to believe that these emperor chaps with their magnificent palaces and secret gardens were wise and benevolent, ruling purely in the interests of their subjects, who loved them dearly, even though I imagine these subjects would have lived dirt poor subsistence lives.

Later on in my Korean adventure I visited the Demilitarised Zone between North and South Korea, before which I was shown a rather heavy handed South Korean propaganda film about another Korean dynasty, the Kim dynasty of the current day North. The dastardly leaders ('Great', 'Dear', or 'Supreme') were said to have had hundreds of  luxury cars and other extravagances, while the poor, miserable ordinary folk starved or ate weeds and rats (or something like that). (Might well all be true of course, but the presentation style didn't do the message any favours.) I was struck anyway by the likely similarity between the benevolent dictators of the good old days and the evil ones of the modern age, just over the border. Not quite sure how many South Koreans see it like that.