There's no way to prove how it actually is since they hide all info and only broadcast state media, but what you're saying goes against every interview and story I've heard from North Korean defectors. A popular dictatorship doesn't make it okay, especially when they have a branch of security officers who answer directly to the Supreme Leader and whose stated goal is to "Perserve the Kim dynasty." If liking the supreme leader is a matter of life and death, then he's going to be pretty popular.

The "DPRK" is clearly a military dictatorship that uses a cult of personality around Kim to keep their power. There's a reason why South Korea has a government division specifically for managing all the defectors they get from the North. It's an authoritarian hellhole up there.