According to a report from the Seoul-based Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, North Korea spends almost 40 percent of its national budget on promoting the cult of the ruling Kim family

According to a report from the Seoul-based Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, North Korea spends almost 40 percent of its national budget on promoting the cult of the ruling Kim family. In recent years, the institute says the "deification budget" has paid for 30,000 statues of Kim il Sung and Kim Jong-il and innumerable gymnastic festivals, films and books, billboards and murals, circus and theater productions celebrating the Kims.

Government media call Kim Jong-il the "Guardian Deity of the Planet," and "Lodestar of the 21st Century." The institute's report did not give a monetary figure for the country's budget.

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