“The Prophecy of Kim Hyong Jik,” a comment made by Kim Il Sung’s father and cultivated by the Chosun Workers’ Party History Institute during the mid-1990s, is back on the lips of North Koreans in their fifties and sixties, increasing anxiety about the Kim Jong Eun succession.
A North Korean internal source explained the problem to The Daily NK on December 12th, saying, “The prophecy, which was left by Kim Hyong Jik when he was alive, says that ‘What is awakened in the father’s generation, is implemented in the son’s generation, and thrives in the grandson’s generation’. It has recently started to be spoken of again by the older generation.”
Therefore, the source explained, “The people are saying to each other, ‘Now, Chosun is down to the great-grandson’s generation, which means only disaster is left’.”
According to North Korea’s creatively conceived “revolutionary history”, Kim Il Sung is said to have inherited “lofty aspirations”, the “comradely idea” and two pistols from his father Kim Hyong Jik. According to standard revolutionary history texts, it is thus said that Kim Hyong Jik “realized” the reality of North Korea, that Kim Il Sung “implemented” the realization by founding North Korea, and that Kim Jong Il has caused the nation to “thrive.”
Kim Hyong Jik is therefore frequently used as a tool in the idolization of the Kim family. In the 1960s and 1970s, study of the “comradely idea” was formalized in the Party, Kim Hyong Jik district came into being in Yangkang Province and there is a school for university professors, “Kim Hyong Jik College of Education.”
Of course, North Korea intentionally emphasized the “Prophecy of Kim Hyong Jik” in the mid-1990s to try and calm a society gripped by famine.
Indeed, Kim Jong Il himself is said to have commented, “From early on, teacher Kim Hyong Jik laid out a far-reaching ideology, and he created a song called ‘the Green Pine-tree on Mt. Nam,’ which conveyed the idea that revolution should be undertaken by every generation in succession. The Great Leader inherited and improved the ideology, and paved the new path of our revolution. And the teaching was ultimately fulfilled by me.”
According to the source, Kim Hyong Jik issued the prophecy in 1918, saying, “Sung Ju (the childhood name of Kim Il Sung) is the morning star and the Great Bear so he needs to eat wild ginseng from the heavens. He will be healthy and live to a great age, but needs to be cautious of snakes and crows in his 80s. In the era of Sung Ju’s son, the nation will become strong and prosperous.”
Speaking on Sunday, the source also explained how the sudden death of Kim Il Sung in the mid-90s played a role in the background to the spread of the prophecy.
The story says that Kim Il Sung’s aide found a snake coiled up in the middle of the road to the villa at Mt. Myohang, where Kim would later pass away, and said, “I will go around it”. However, Kim Il Sung ignored the comment and scared away the serpent with a stick, causing his own sudden death. It displays the thinking of the North Korean people, who saw Kim’s death as a superstition-based phenomenon, whereby Kim, who was supposed to live forever, suddenly passed away during the preparations for Kim Young Sam, a former South Korean president, to visit North Korea.
The source said, however, that he believes specific evidence to back the prophecy of Kim Hyong Jik is not on show, even within North Korea, although some people believe there is something in the Chosun Revolutionary Museum.
There is one other anecdote related to snakes within North Korean literature. The book “Eternal Life”, created by the April 15th Cultural Creation Group after the death of Kim Il Sung, describes that “When the Great Leader saw the snake and competed against it, the snake recognized a man of unsurpassed greatness and went back to the mountains voluntarily.”
The prophecy is spoken of widely by those who consider the Kim Jong Eun succession to be unstable. That Kim Jong Eun was only formalized in government at the end of September and has a lack of personal information or experiences that the people might be able to respect only amplifies the feeling of anxiety.
However, the source stated, “Some retired Party officials are offering counterweights to this prophecy.” He explained that they are working hard to claim that since Kim Il Sung created the revolutionary idea his was the “realization” stage, while Kim Jong Il completed the Military-first political system, which they are claiming is actually the “implementation” stage.
However, even this fudge is problematic, as the source explained, “In reality, the statement, ‘The nation will be prosperous in the era of Youth Captain’ is not really getting much play,” adding, “were they to proclaim the prosperity of the great-grandson’s era, the achievements of Kim Hyong Jik would have to fade.”
