Some small communist and fascist groups are definitely cults Some larger ideological groups may contain a cultic core or special formations organized in a cult like fashion according to some accounts the Third International operatives from various countries in the 1930s were treated virtually as cult zombies by Stalin s cynical bureaucrats Arguably Himmler s SS included cultic formations trained at that castle Wewelsburg where they supposedly performed something called the ceremony of the stifling air possibly this is a street legend As to North Korea it is definitely a totalitarian state with an intense leader cult religion probably the most intense such formation that has ever existedone hesitates to describe it as a Stalin style personality cult since even Stalin never strove for such a level of quasi religious worship and regimentation But I m not sure the term political cult is appropriate in reference to North Korea since the term has been used up until now exclusively to refer to relatively small groups that don t wield state power and that employ elaborate psychological manipulation of their followers as a substitute for the patronage and secret police power of a post revolutionary state Dking Dennis King 2 Sept 2006