Loyalty to Kim Il Sung had been forged by a guerrilla war against Japanese imperialists waged in Manchuria.

ECONOMIST: Jaw-jaw

Turn on Chinese state TV and there are legions of wartime dramas that show heroic Chinese fighters resisting evil Japanese imperialists.

FORBES: Asia's Week: Painting Warships And Talking Peace

Apparently, Mr Shii hopes to discover whether it is still true that, as the party's Manifesto on Freedom and Democracy declares, the Japanese people are enslaved by American imperialists working hand in glove with their unequal partners, Japanese monopoly capitalists.

ECONOMIST: Japan hangs up the hammer and sickle