(My latest story for Asia Times)Young general comes out as mother's boy

I've uploaded all the photographs of Ko Young-hee to my facebook.

You can see them at 高英姫(Ko Young-hee, the mother of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un)

Young general comes out as mother's boy
Kim Jong-eun, in a bid to underscore his authority as North Korean leader, has launched a mass deification campaign for his mother, former first lady Ko Young-hee. As seen in exclusive pictures obtained by Asia Times Online, the late Ko is being elevated as "Mother of The Great Military First Korea" - without mention of her Japanese birth and traitorous family.
- Kosuke Takahashi (Jul 13, '12)

Young general comes out as mother's boy
By Kosuke Takahashi

TOKYO - In a risky gamble, Pyongyang is resting its hopes for the survival of the Kim regime on one woman - a dead one at that. Struggling to cement his dynastic credentials, young North Korean leader Kim Jong-eun has launched a mass deification campaign for his mother and the first lady of late leader Kim Jong-il, Ko Young-hee, who is believed to have died in 2004.

Since May, Ko has been praised as the "Respected Mother", the "Great Mother" and "The Mother of The Great Military First Korea", as can been seen in a film and photographs obtained by Asia Times Online this month from Rescue the North Korean People! (RENK), a Japan-based citizens' group supporting
ordinary North Koreans.

The idolization of Ko connects a missing link in the blood-heir's succession over three generations from the country's founding father Kim Il-sung to Kim Jong-il and to Kim Jong-eun.

Experts say the deification campaign is part of accelerated North Korean efforts to mythologize and legitimize its revolutionary tradition. Pyongyang's official accounts claim this originated in the sacred Mt Paektu, the highest peak in the Korean Peninsula and the birthplace, in propaganda accounts, of Kim Jong-il. (Soviet records show that he was actually born in a village in Russia's Far East.)

The video of Ko does not mention an inconvenient truth - Ko was born in Japan - the brutal colonial ruler of Korea from 1910-1945. She was born in the famous Koreatown, Tsuruhashi, in Osaka, in 1952. Her father, Ko Kyung-taek, made Imperial Japanese Army soldiers' uniforms in a sewing factory during World War II.

"North Korea needs to cover up the fact that Ko Young-hee was born and raised in Osaka," said RENK spokesman Lee Young-hwa, adding that her family moved to North Korea only in the early 1960s as part of a repatriation program.

Sound and vision
The rare 85 minutes of video footage and 93 photographs of Ko Young-hee for the first time reveal her vivid appearance and voice. In the video and photos, she accompanies Kim Jong-il to military camps, factories and farms. She is seen riding a white horse, following her husband on another white horse.

She inspects a barrage of rocket-propelled grenades with Kim Jong-il, with both wearing the same vintage Courreges sunglasses that became trademark apparel for her husband. They murmured words into each other's ears and smiled. The video shows a very happily married couple.

In one scene, she visits a barrack and expresses concern about soldiers' daily lives. She tastes a soldier's home-made donut, then teaches them how to cook a potato-based donut. In the following days, she sends them sugar and cooking oils.

The movie aims to conjure an image of the "Mother of The Great Military First Korea", which is the video's title. The movie uses emotional female narration and a rousing musical score in the classic North Korean style of propaganda.

She is also seen holding a gun, suggesting a strong wife who always protects her husband. This was echoed scenes of Kim Jong-suk, or Kim Il-sung's first wife and Kim Jong-il's mother, who was a guerilla and communist politician. The images also showed Ko met many dignitaries abroad, stressing her precious role as the first lady.

The attempts to establish Ko's authority also stress the Kim dynasty's heroic family lineage, which stretches back to Kim Jong-eun's grandfather's partisan guerilla activities against Japan in the 1930s.

After Ko's family moving back to North Korea in the early 1960s, she worked as a dancer for the prestigious Mansudae Art Troupe in Pyongyang, where she met Kim Jong-il. She is believed to have died in Paris due to breast cancer in 2004, which the video also does not mention.

By sanctifying the late Ko, Kim Jong-eun is trying to underscore his authority as the North's new leader. The efforts also come as the "young general" has been repeatedly seen with a woman who is believed to Hyon Song-wol, a former singer in a popular group called Bochonbo Electronic Music Band.

However, making it tricky for propagandists there are no photos or scenes of Kim Jong-eun with his parents. RENK's Lee points out that this was because Kim Jong-eun was studying in Switzerland from 1996 to 2002 when the video scenes were shot. In contrast, North Korea has shown many photos of Kim Jong-il with his parents, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-suk.

An ugly truth
It is widely known among Japanese experts on North Korea that Ko Young-hee's father moved from Cheju Island to Japan in 1929. He worked for Hirota Hokojo, a needlework factory under the control of the Imperial Army of Japan. This means Kim Jong-eun's grandfather was a collaborator with the Japanese imperialists. This can never be revealed by Pyongyang as it might shock the population.

In addition, Ko Young-hee's younger sister, Ko Young-suk, and her family defected to the United Sates in 1998 in the middle of the nation's "great famine", in which millions of people died of starvation. This makes Kim Jong-eun's aunt a national traitor. According to the South Korean media, Kim Jong-eun himself has given orders to execute any defectors by a firing squad and their families expelled to internal exile.

Sanctifying Ko Young-hee may provide indirect support for her son, but it is a risky ploy. Information on her birth and family may trickle out to the isolationist country, damaging his legitimacy as national leader. Ko Young-hee's background continues to be one of Kim Jong-eun's - as well as North Korea's - dangerously weak spots.

Kosuke Takahashi is a Tokyo-based Japanese journalist. Besides Asia Times Online, he also writes for Jane's Defence Weekly as Tokyo correspondent. His twitter is @TakahashiKosuke

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