On the 12th, Rodong Shinmun gave front page status to the publication of an April 20th treatise by Kim Jong Eun in praise of Kim Il Sung, then on the 13th it turned to focus the propaganda on praising the younger man’s writing, calling it “Powerful literature illuminating the great history of Juche Chosun and the people’s path.”
During this period, Rodong reported also how Choi Tae Bok, the chair of the Supreme People’s Assembly, praised Kim Jong Eun’s treatise in praise of his grandfather as “the militant banner of the victory and prosperity of the new Juche 100s,” while 1st Secretary of the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League Jeon Yong Nam also declared that it “puts power to the work of preparing the new generation to become successors to the revolution and clarifies the accomplishments of comrade Kim Il Sung’s great revolutionary works.” In this way, the authorities moved to build the notion of lineage from one Kim down to the next.
Elsewhere, Hwang Soon Hui, a member of the 1st generation of anti-Japanese resistance fighters and the current head of the Museum of the Chosun Revolution, in a piece entitled ‘Our Motherland Is the Land of the Eternal Suryeong’, is reported to have noted, “We [anti-Japanese revolutionaries] cannot express how deeply moved we are by every line of the treatise, which presents an elaboration on the brilliance of the Suryeong’s classical treatise”, thus propagating the idea that first generation revolutionaries are also supportive of the new leader and his ideas.
Third, Director of the Academy of Social Sciences Lee Hye Jong, in the piece, ‘The Great Honor of Uplifting an Exceptional Theorist’, said that Kim Jong Eun’s thesis “is truly a masterpiece among masterpieces which touches our hearts. I can hardly contain all the pride and personal satisfaction of welcoming another revolutionary theorist.” Thus, Kim was marked as being a legitimate genius in his own right as well.
As can be seen through these examples from the last two days, Rodong Shinmun has been concentrating particularly on evaluating the greatness of Kim Jong Eun’s theoretical work and its lineage so as to help build the legitimacy of his succession. The authorities seem to have concluded that this is one of the more efficient ways to make Kim appear intellectually valid, of good breeding and therefore worthy of ruling North Korea.
