Yeah, this is a really ancient practice. The Roman Empire officially called its government "The Senate and People of Rome" and itself the "Roman Republic", despite being a dictatorial, borderline totalitarian autocracy. Later, in the Middle Ages, when empires were all the rage and republics had fallen out of style, states that wanted to sound grandiose would call themselves empires, even when they weren't. The most famous example is the Holy Roman Empire, who, much like North Korea, crammed as much culturally positive-sounding buzzwords into its name as possible.

"You don't have to give your people basic rights if they've never even heard about basic rights in their lives."