The Kim Dynasty of North Korea: The Notorious History of the Hermit Kingdom’s Supreme Leaders by Charles River Editors

Author:Charles River Editors
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Charles River Editors
Published: 2017-12-20T00:00:00+00:00

The Master Manipulator

“When it comes to the orchestration of terror, Kim Jong-il is a natural-born genius.” – Kim Duk-hong, former member of WPK Central Committee to BBC News in July of 2003

Kim Il-sung's personality cult was initially inspired by Stalin, but as the USSR steadily began to lose momentum in the sphere of Communism, the state deviated from the Marxist path and began to pave one wherein the leaders, as opposed to Marxist-Leninist laws, were solely responsible for the nation's victories. For decades, it was Kim Jong-il who had been placed in charge of both managing and refining the personality cult of his father, and this experience would become crucial when it came time to developing one of his own.

With his equally impulsive father still in power, Kim Jong-il made sure to tread lightly so as not to step on the toes of the irascible Kim Il-sung. As such, the first version of his personality cult was subordinate to that of his father. Portraits of Kim Jong-il, at this time, were rare, and there was not one statue erected in his likeness. The badges all North Korean citizens were forced to pin to their lapels only featured the face of the current Supreme Leader. The North Korean calendar began on the day of Kim Il-sung's birth, whereas Kim Jong-il was honored only through a public holiday on the 16th of February, his date of birth, aka the “Day of the Shining Star.” Furthermore, only Kim Il-sung's portrait is printed upon North Korean bills, known as “wons.”

Both Japanese Prime Ministers, Junichiro Koizumi and Shinzo Abe, described Kim Jong-il as a “rational...and logical” man, one self-aware enough to even poke fun at his sorry state's isolation. So what could have prompted this supposedly reasonable man to propagate such outlandish claims about himself? Many say the answer is straightforward: an indomitable thirst for power and control, seasoned with a healthy helping of paranoia. Kim Jong-il knew that it would have been impossible to transcend his father in the people's eyes, and as a result, he opted to appropriate his father's cult for his own benefit. Thus, he was not only able to milk all he could out of being the son of a “demigod;” concocting his own brand of claims and accomplishments meant that he would not be outshined by his father, and it also allowed him to create a separate “personality” of his own.

Manufacturing an unquestionably strong and powerful, yet appealing personality worthy of mass veneration was a challenge in itself. While Kim Jong-il was evidently capable of being charming and sociable when on his best behavior, those closest to him were saddled with tolerating the testy, emotionally unstable man-child. “Kim Jong-il is a very nice person when he is in a good mood,” Sung Hye-Rang, Kim Jong-il's sister-in-law, once said of him. “But when he is in a bad mood, he gets so furious that the windows shake.”

Fujimoto Kenji, Kim Jong-il's personal sushi chef, described how he behaved towards his peers:

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