[imText1]In September 1960, Kim Jong Il entered Political/Economic Department of the College of Economics at Kim Il Sung University. Kim Il Sung’s children all graduated from Kim Il Sung University.
In South Korea, those who attended university in the 1960s are called Generation 4.19. (April 19 marks the historical pro-democracy movement in Korea.) In North Korea, Generation Cheollima refers to those who lived the same decade. Cheollima movement was a nationwide campaign to implement the 6-year economic development plan proposed by Kim Il Sung. In other words, Cheollima movement was mobilization for the economic reconstruction of North Korea. At the time, North Korean university students spent most of their university days on field grip, military drill, etc.
Kim Jong Il received a special treatment during his college days. Students did not call him by name, but called him, ‘Premier’s son.’ The scope of his life and activities expanded upon his entrance into university, and special agents for his protection grew in number.
Professor Kim Shin Sook of Department of History at Kim Il Sung University was the main supervisor of Kim Jong Il’s university life. Kim Shin Sook is Kim Il Sung’s cousin on his father’s side. She is married to Yang Hyeong Seop, Chairman of the Supreme People’s Assembly. Tutors were assigned to Kim Jong Il for each subject from politics to economics, from history to philosophy and languages. His tutors were chief lecturers. Chief lecturers are different from the head of the department faculty in South Korean universities, which is a rotational post and the title goes to those who are outstanding professors in their field. Most of Kim Jong Il’s papers, which are said to have been written when he was in university, were revised version of assignments submitted to these tutors in fact.
Kim Jong Il’s graduation dissertation was on ‘the role and status of gun in socialism building.’ He discussed narrowing the gap between the rural and urban area, and the role of gun in improving the rural area up to the urban standards. Kim’s biographers praised this dissertation saying that it surpasses the quality of ordinary undergraduate dissertation. Though it is said officially that Kim wrote this paper over a little over one month, his advisor and ph D in economics Jeon Yong Shik is known to be the ghost writer.
Jeon Yong Shik later became Wonsa, the most honorable researcher of Social Study Academy of North Korea. It is the highest honor awarded to those academicians who contributed to the academic development of North Korea. He had taught at university in Seoul before moving to the North. Wonsa Jeon, despite his regional background associated with South Korea, remained at Kim Il Sung University while other professors from South Korea were kicked out of universities en masse around 1978.
Kim became fascinated by movies when he was in university. He went to Central Film Distribution Corp. almost every day. Therefore, the film distribution company set up a special showing room for Kim later. What drew Kim Jong Il to movies was that he could experience a different world on the silver screen. Up until 1960s, the quality of North Korean movies was poor and the overall moviemaking facilities were less than developed. Soviet movies were therefore considered worth watching in a closed society like North Korea. Kim Jong Il started watching almost all Soviet movies and became acquainted with the Western world through the movies.
Currently, there is a private film library for Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang. Over 15,000 films from various nations are on catalogue. About 250 workers from dubbing artists to translators, from subtitle workers to audio workers work in this institution. Some 300 South Korean movies are stored in the South Korean Section. According to Shin Sang Ok, a film director and Choi Eun Hee, an actress once kidnapped by North Korea, even South Korean films whose original copy is no longer available in South Korea were found there. It is known that Kim Jong Il got a hold of these South Korean films when the South Korean Film Promotion Corp. exported South Korean films at low prices to Southeast Asian countries via Hong Kong in the 1970s.
The manager of this film library is mainly responsible for collecting films abroad and bringing them in a diplomatic pouch. Moscow is the channel of Western movies. Before the report of Sung Hye Rim’s escape to the West in February 1996, Choi Joon Deok stationed in Moscow stationed in Moscow was in charge of this business. Choi was Kim Jong Il’s classmate at Kim Il Sung University.
This import of foreign films through Moscow is code-named ‘No. 100 Resource Project.’ Kim Jong Il named this project himself. This project also includes copying films at North Korean embassies in Austria, Guangzhou China and Macao, smuggling as well as normal importing of foreign films. In the early 1970s, Lee Jong Mok, the first Deputy Director of Foreign Affairs was in charge of this business. Movies from Hollywood to South Korea, action movies, erotic movies, Chinese martial art movies and Japanese Ninja movies have been delivered to Pyongyang through this window.
