Language and Truth in North Korea by Sonia Ryang

Author:Sonia Ryang
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Hawai‘i Press
Published: 2021-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Parenting Each and Every One

A Story of Orphans

Appearing in the very first volume of the people’s chronicle, Choe Yeongok’s story starts with a chance encounter with a gentleman or ajeossi (a generic term referring to an adult male), who happens to be an assistant to Kim Il Sung. Here and in many other stories, Kim’s assistants play an important role in scouting or gathering information for Kim Il Sung. According to many stories in the chronicle, Kim’s assistants roam the cities and the countryside incognito, talking to ordinary residents, children, the elderly, and so on, just like the secret royal emissaries of dynastic, premodern Korea, the amhaengeosa, who were sent in disguise all over the country to investigate local governments and spy on corrupt officials.

It is 1960 and the first day back at school for the new academic year. Fourteen-year-old Yeongok and two of her friends are walking along the street wearing the new school uniforms that they have received from the government when an ajeossi comes up and says hi. The ajeossi, after complimenting them on their new school uniforms, suggests that the girls get into the car with him to go someplace nice. The three girls agree and, before long, they are taken to a two-story home in Pyongyang. To their surprise, it is the residence of Kim Il Sung.

During their visit, Kim smiles and then asks them all kinds of questions: How many pairs of new shoes did the girls receive the previous year? How many pencils are they allocated each year? How many notebooks could they find in the school store? And so on. He then shifts to the topic of their parents. Yeongok, unlike her friends, has no answer, since both of her parents have passed away. Kim kindly asks her why she was orphaned. Yeongok tells him that her father was killed during the Korean War, when she was less than seven years old, and her mother, who raised four girls singlehandedly after her husband’s death, died of illness at a young age in 1959. Since then, her sixteen-yearold sister has worked and taken care of two of her younger siblings—Yeongok and one other, while the youngest has been entrusted with a co-worker of her deceased mother, as she was still only a toddler when her mother passed away. Kim Il Sung looks truly pained. That night, the ajeossi gives Yeongok a ride home and identifies the apartment where she and her sisters live.

Listening to Yeongok’s adventure, her sisters are so envious of Yeongok, because Yeongok has met Kim Il Sung in person, a dream-like experience! Then, the following day, the ajeossi comes to visit the sisters and tells them that Kim Il Sung has invited all of them to his residence. The girls cannot believe it. Upon meeting the sisters, Kim arranges for all of the girls, including their youngest sister, to be sent to a hagwon or boarding academy where the bereaved children of revolutionaries are raised and educated. Kim tells them to come back to his residence to spend the May Day holiday together with his family.

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