The Revolutionary Life of Comrade Kim Jong Suk (MHI) скачать в хорошем качестве

The Revolutionary Life of Comrade Kim Jong Suk (MHI)

NK Report - On December 24, North Korea officially celebrates the 101st birthday of one of the key figures in the country's historiography, and at the same time the one with the least known biography — Kim Jong Suk, mother of Kim Jong Il. Hailed as one of the “three Commanders of the Paektu mountain,” she has her own personality cult in the North, which includes separate subjects in the school curriculum dedicated to her life. For many years after 1945, while it was known that she was Kim Il Sung’s wife, her biography was not of any interest to the research community. Only with the rise of Kim Jong Il in the 1970s did South Koreans — and the international community — develop an interest in Kim Jong Suk. The following shows how little is known of her — and how the North Korean state struggled to give this simple woman an image of a living god.As for Kim Jong Suk, she was born in colonial Korea in a county of Kainei (now Hoeryong city) in 1919 — although for some reason the DPRK later changed this date to 1917 (maybe to create a nice five-year age difference with Kim Il Sung?). The DPRK, naturally, claims that she hailed from a family of revolutionaries who fought for independence, but given that even in North Korea the name of her mother is unknown (she is normally referred to as “Ms. O” – 오씨 녀사), one cannot but start to doubt this claim. Her father, Kim Chun San (김춘산), is also not known to be a person of any significance. North Korean publications from the late 1940s say that she joined the partisan unit in 1934 when she was merely 14. It is actually unknown when Kim Jong Suk married Kim Il Sung. Although judging by existing documents, this happened before the couple fled to the Soviet Union, anything which can even remotely hint at Kim Il Sung’s sexual life is taboo in North Korea — and the date of marriage was never revealed. Instead, the DPRK merely stated that Kim Il Sung liked her for her loyalty, and presents the public with some stories about their life, like when Kim Jong Suk used her own body heat to dry Kim Il Sung’s clothes, and so on.It is not even known if they had a proper ceremony — it is not as if a guerilla fighter like Kim Il Sung could simply walk into an office somewhere in Fengtian province and ask Manchukuo authorities to register the couple as husband and wife. After the partisan movement was finally crushed by the Japanese and Manchurian armies, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Suk fled to the Soviet Union. It is not known if they went together or separately, but they both managed to cross the Manchurian-Soviet border safely.According to some records, Kim Jong Suk used the Russian name Nina at the time, although others say it was not her name but Wang Yizhi’s. The funeral There is little known about Kim Jong Suk’s life in North Korea. People remember that she was still living the life of a housewife, attending to her husband, who was steadily growing in power. There are photos of her with Kim Il Sung and Soviet generals — especially with General Lebedev and his wife Dina, and sometimes with her own young son Yura — when he was not yet called Jong Il. Interestingly, she became a Party member only in 1946, despite being married to the Responsible Secretary of the Bureau for northern Korea — quite fitting, as in 1945 the Party remained very small. Kim Jong Suk passed away in 1949. Reportedly, she died in childbirth, as testified by Yu Song-chol, a former serviceman of the 88th Brigade, who knew the ruling couple. Later, there were rumors that Jong Suk took her own life, being unable to bear Kim Il Sung’s constant cheating. However, Yu testified that while there were problems related to the Great Leader’s infidelity in the family, it was not related to Jong Suk’s death. The day Kim Jong Suk died was the first time she appeared in Rodong Sinmun. The following message was published: We inform that lady Kim Jong Suk, the wife of the Premier of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Kim Il Sung, passed away from a disease at 2:40 in the night on September 22, 1949. (Funeral Committee) An obituary about her life outlined the major dates of her biography — joining the partisan unit and the Parties — and stated that the Korean nation has just lost one of its best daughters.Of course, this obituary is now banned in North Korea for multiple reasons. First, the date of Kim Jong Suk’s birth, 1919, had later been altered. Second, Kim Il Sung was not in the committee — likely because in the 1940s it would have appeared too nepotistic. Third, more than half of the committee had been staffed with the people who were later purged. Having the Great Leader ignoring the funeral of the Great Mother, and instead having her being buried by Pak Hon Yong, Kim Tu Bong, Choe Chang Ik, Pak Chang Ok and other known “factionalists,” would be unthinkable. (MHI)