Page 64 - All About History 55 - 2017 UK

The House of Kim

The year 1994 was perhaps the worst for North Il-sung, now entombed and embalmed in a In fact, Jong-il was born in a guerrilla camp and
Koreans since the founding of their nation 45 giant mausoleum in the centre of Pyongyang, no strange metrological or astronomical incidents
years previously. The country was ravaged was named ‘eternal president’ — forever the were reported. His younger brother drowned in
by a tragic famine (the result of a disastrous DPRK’s Supreme Leader. 1947 in a swimming pool accident and many
communist planning system), they were feeling Once Il-sung had declared his eldest son as his have long believed that the older boy pushed the
the effects of the now dissolved Soviet Union’s heir in the 1980s, the personality cult machinery younger under the water and held him down, but
‘fraternal aid’ being cut off, and, Kim Il-sung, went into full swing and soon there wasn’t a evidence of this is unfounded.
father of the nation, died. single North Korean citizen who did not know Though Kim’s official origin may sound
For the first time, Western observers saw the Jong-il’s official origin story. He was reputedly comically bizarre to those outside of the country,
mass outpourings of grief that have become such born on Mount Paektu, Korea’s highest and most it makes more sense in the context of the Korean
a hallmark of the subsequent deaths of senior sacred mountain. As he came into the world, a tradition of deploying mythology as a tool to
leaders in the North. The entire country — much new star appeared in the sky, a double rainbow perpetuate tradition and inspire the population.
of it starving and economically on its knees — appeared, an iceberg on a nearby lake cracked, The story is allegory and is probably understood
went into an official Confucian three-year period strange lights filled the sky and a swallow passed as such by most ordinary North Koreans, even
of national mourning. by overhead to pass the news of his birth on to though it served to raise the stature of Jong-il
During that time, and as expected, Kim Jong- the world. The legend went on that a young and perpetuate the personality cult that came to
il was declared the ‘Dear Leader’, charged with Jong-il remained by his father’s side until the surround him and his family.
following in his father’s footsteps. So great were Japanese were defeated, finally expelled from Despite the propaganda, Jong-il’s reign wasn’t
those footsteps that Jong-il was declared the Korea and Pyongyang liberated for a bright, new guaranteed. The North Korean Army’s leadership
North’s number two leader and the deceased communist future. thought him weak — not a soldier like his father.
However, Jong-il had proved he was suitably
Kim Jong-il had his own blood thirsty early on. As a senior official under
official portraits made
when he succeeded his his father, Jong-il is thought to have ordered the
father in 1994 1983 bombing in Rangoon that killed 17 visiting
South Korean officials. Additionally, some high-
level defectors have claimed that he ordered the
1987 shooting down of a South Korean airliner
that killed all 115 passengers on board.

A family portrait of Jong-il
with his parents

Pueblo incident The axe murder incident North Korea’s first nuclear test
23 January 1968 18 August 1976 9 October 2006
Although outside North Korean waters, USS Pueblo was US Army officers were cutting down trees Despite the ‘Sunshine Policy’ from South Korea to defuse
seized by the North Korean Navy. All 83 crewmembers in the DMZ when they were attacked by tensions on the peninsula and six-party talks involving
were captured and one killed, creating a diplomatic DPRK soldiers. Two Americans were killed the North with the South, China, Russia, Japan and the
incident. The ship remains moored on Pyongyang’s by the North Koreans, who oddly claimed US to seek dialogue, the DPRK exploded a nuclear bomb
Taedong River as a tourist attraction. that Kim Il-sung had planted the trees. in direct contravention of international treaties.

Blue House Raid Discovery of incursion tunnels Korean Air Flight 858
21 January 1968 15 November 1974 29 November 1987
This was an attempt by North Korean commandos to South Korean and American forces at the DMZ Korean Air Flight 858 was a scheduled international passenger flight between
assassinate the South Korean president, Park Chung-hee, were shocked to discover four tunnels crossing Baghdad and Seoul that exploded in mid-air upon the detonation of a bomb
in his residence, the Blue House in Seoul. It is thought the zone that had been dug by North Korea. The planted inside an overhead storage bin by North Korean agents. It was the
the attack was in response to Park’s support of the US in tunnels were 91 by 121 centimetres, reinforced 34th anniversary of the end of the Korea War, and the attack is thought to
the Vietnam War. 26 South Koreans were killed. with concrete and had electric lighting. have been masterminded by Kim Jong-il himself to derail unification talks.
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