( CNN ) -- Since Kim Jong Il 's death was announced on Monday , many people have marveled at the mourning scenes featured on North Korean state television , made viral on the Internet : North Koreans prostrate , weeping , hitting the ground . Many have asked whether the anguish is genuine . How could citizens mourn the passing of a totalitarian , such a gross abuser of human rights ? The answer may be found in the human rights abuses themselves . It is a lamentable characteristic of totalitarian regimes that they often demand acts of deceit from those they oppress . Often it is a matter of simple survival . Those who hate the regime are obliged to demonstrate patriotism . To fail is to risk persecution . The only alternative is to flee , a choice made by tens of thousands of North Koreans in the past two decades . North Korea is unambiguously a totalitarian state . An estimated 200,000 North Koreans are held under brutal conditions in remote forced labor camps called kwan-li-so . Citizens are deprived of the freedom to speak , to dissent , to assemble , to seek remedies for grievances . Perhaps worst of all , there is no freedom from fear -- knowing that one can be imprisoned and tortured for minor trifles , sent to a kwan-li-so for being related to someone who displeased the state , or face a kangaroo court trial and possible public execution for a long list of political or economic `` crimes . '' Even those who manage to keep out of trouble suffer from the government 's deadly economic mismanagement and a `` military first '' policy : death from famines , widespread stunting in children from persistent malnutrition and untreated illness . It is difficult for many North Koreans to obtain adequate money or food without committing acts that are criminal or , given the crackdown on economic crimes , potentially suicidal . For many , to live in North Korea is to live in fear for one 's very existence . In a context like this , there is no way to know what is genuine and what is theatrical . Totalitarianism and fear impair the idea of truth and the concept of objectivity . Rather than focusing on the televised tears of mourners for Kim Jong Il , we should be asking what needs to be done to ensure that someday North Korean television will show the tears of the fathers , mothers and children who have seen their relatives suffer or die because of the acts and omissions of Kim Jong Il and his father , Kim Il Sung , before him , during their unbroken 63-year rule . The `` Great Successor , '' Kim Jong Un , is still largely untested and doubts persist about whether he is really in charge in Pyongyang , but many hope that change is more likely now than a week ago . The international community should use this transition period to press the new leader to break from the criminal tyranny of the past and steer the country in a new direction . Kim Jong Un could start by taking note of calls made in the latest U.N. General Assembly resolution on North Korea , and allowing a visit by U.N. special rapporteurs . Change needs to come to North Korea , in one form or another . Those who will lead North Korea now , Kim Jong Un and the generals and ministers who control the state apparatus , need to remember that history has not been kind to tyrants . Totalitarian regimes can linger , and often do , but ultimately gross injustices are unsustainable and those who commit them can ( and now often do ) face the punishments of international justice . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of John Sifton .
Many wonder if Totalitarian ' grief over the death of Sifton is genuine , says Kim Jong Il . Sifton : How could citizens mourn the passing of such a gross abuser of human rights ? In a totalitarian society , those who hate the regime are obliged to show patriotism , he says . For many , to live in Pyongyang is to live in fear for one 's very existence , Kim Jong Il says .