Now, with the sudden death of Kim Jong Il, the glorification campaign for Kim Jong Eun is beginning to intensify; however, the North Korean propagandists are having serious difficulties dealing with Kim Jong Eun’s mother, who was a Zainichi Korean ‘dancing girl’.
This problem cannot be just put aside forever. Therefore, it is likely that there will be a full-scale propaganda campaign very soon. However, they will doubtless try to hide the fact that Ko Young Hee was from Japan, as well as that she used to be a dancing girl.
Hitherto, meanwhile, Ko Young Hee glorification has been proceeding rather intermittently.
One defector who used to be with the Chosun People’s Army informed DailyNK on December 23rd, “From early 2003, People’s Army’s choruses began singing the song ‘Mother of Pyongyang’ about Ko Young Hee, but it disappeared from the repertoire at the end of 2006.”
Another defector from North Hamkyung Province stated, “We were instructed by local Party cadres to call Ko Young Hee not ‘The General’s wife’ but ‘Mother of Pyongyang’.”
From the beginning of the 2000s to her death in 2004, she was referred to in lectures as “Respected Mother”. And, more recently, poems symbolizing her have been reintroduced to the military.
Kim Jong Il’s mother, Kim Jong Suk, is referred to in the former leader’s works as one of the “Three Generals”, together with Kim Il Sung and himself. He also called her “A Heroine of the Anti-Japanese Resistance” and “Mother of the Revolution” in order to gain her respect and loyalty from the people, as well as to show his personal grief, for she died when he was 8.
Kim Jong Eun, meanwhile, lost his mother when he was 23, so it is quite possible that he feels the same way and will proceed with the same course.
However, the fact that Ko is from Japan poses a grave danger to the race-based notion of “Mt. Baekdu Blood” and this poses a real threat to the North Korean propaganda machine.
On this, one North Korea specialist commented to Daily NK, “For the moment it seems that after the stabilisation of the system, Kim Jong Eun will start the Ko Young Hee glorification campaign,” however, “Ko Young Hee is not a member of the revolutionary family and was a concubine, and as such it seems likely that there will be a great deal of fabrication in this campaign”.
The expert continued, “Despite such problems, this campaign will proceed in a way similar to the one for Kim Jong Suk”. However, defectors suggest that it will be doomed to become an object of ridicule amongst the common people.
