lpetrich

North Korea's propagandists have told some rather interestring miracle stories about their nation's leaders, as related in URL http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpo.../pers_cult.htm

Consider the stories about Kim Jong-Il's birth and childhood; are such stories really much more absurd than the stories about Jesus Christ's birth? And yes, North Koreans can brag about being willing to die for their beliefs; yes, die at the hands of wicked Japanese and American imperialists and their South Korean lackeys.

Some details:

In the days of the Japanese colonial rule of Korea, Kim Il- sung never participated in real combats, although he was a Soviet army captain belonging to the 88 Special Reconnaissance Brigade; yet, he claimed that for 15 years he participated in more than 100,000 battles (over 20 battles a day) and won victories, even forging mystic stories that he turned sand into rice and crossed rivers on a leaflet as if he were an almighty deity.

To justify his fabricated past, he appointed so-called revolutionary war sites (7 places) and historic sites (34 places) throughout all North Korea, and every year he urged all the people to make expeditionary marches to those places. He even ordered the building of over 40,000 Kim Il-sung's Revolutionary Thought study rooms for the indoctrination of the people.

Furthermore, he had over 70 bronze statues and over 20,000 plaster busts erected all over the country, and had more than 20 diverse kinds of Kim Il-sung badges manufactured and worn by the people according to their class, aside from the obligatory hanging of a Kim Il-sung portrait in each household.

Besides, he ordered the carving of over 12,000 pieces of catchword trees and catchword documents, as well as the carving of letters appearing on natural rocks, and the erection of monumental stones with his own personal writings, let alone the publication of countless books related to his personality cult. In addition, he designated his birthday as "the greatest national holiday" and observed his birthday by spending hundreds of millions of dollars every year.

Even after the death of Kim Il-sung, the North Korean authorities had his body mummified and laid in a coffin at the super-deluxe Kumsusan Memorial Palace to prolong the personality cult under the pretext that he is "immortal and imperishable."

Kim Jong-il was actually born in Vyatsk in the vicinity of Khabarovsk, the Far Eastern region of the ex-Soviet Union, but his birth has been falsified as if he was born in a "milyong" (secret camp) on Mt. Paekdu, Yanggang Province. Therefore, the milyong has been designated a sacred ground, which people are encouraged to visit every year. Even a "Kim Jong-il Department" is established in each university, and the curriculum of primary and secondary schools contains lessons about Kim Jong-il's fabricated childhood.

In 1972, when he was informally nominated as the de facto successor to Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il began to be called the "Center of the Party," then, "Dear Leader" (1975), "Ryongdoja" (guiding leader) (1983). "Great Ryongdoja" (1986), "Unprecedented Great Man" (1994), and recently, "Outstanding Suryong" (leader) (1997).

North Korea has also invented a variety of absurd legends and anecdotes to idolize Kim Jong-il. For example, "At the time of his birth there were flashes of lightening and thunder, the iceberg in the pond on Mt. Paekdu emitted a mysterious sound as it broke, and bright double rainbows rose up," "At the age of 4 he smeared a Japanese map with black ink, then a stormy rain poured down on Japan," "By a touch of Kim Jong-il's hand the sea turned into a fertile land and a deep valley into a paradise," and numerous others of unbearable absurdity.

The North Korean authorities published, during the years 1992- 94, over 300 poems praising Kim Jong-il, and over 400 songs of praise. They also attempted to glorify Kim Jong-il's ruling capacity by the use of extraordinary terms, such as "Indok (benevolent virtue) Politics" or "Kwangpok (wide-width or wide-range) Politics."

Kim Ung-u (Kim Il-sung's great-grandfather) a plain peasant was made into the vanguard commander of the incident of the sinking of an American trading vessel, the Sherman (the actual leader was Governor of Pyongyang, Pak Kyu-su).

Kim Bo-hyon (Kim Il-sung's grandfather), Li bo-Ik (grandmother) Ordinary farmers were made into patriots who resisted Japanese aggressors.

Kim Hyong-jik (Kim Il-sung's father) an oriental medicine pharmacist who was killed in a raid by Communists, but who was made into an indefatigable Communist revolutionary fighter and a vanguard of the Communist movement.

Kang Ban-sok (Kim Il-sung's mother) an ordinary Christian woman, who was made into a passionate revolutionary fighter and a leader of the Korean women's liberation movement

straylight

It must be all true, there was nowhere near enough time for legends to form out of historical events...

sailor74

Ipetrich

Yes in a hundred years he'll go down as a a god, that walked on water and performed miracles, healed the sick etc. Along with Mao.

My wife is Korean, I'll show this to her i'm sure she'll get a kick out it.

thanks danny

Ron Garrett

IN the seventies I was in military intelligence in Korea. I got to translate some of the Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jon-Il crap. I thought at the time, "How can anyone be so stupid and simple-minded as to buy such outrageous bullshit?" I promptly returned to the US, joined the Navigators and became a Southern Baptist Lay minister without ever seeing the parallel. Wild bullshit is only okay as long as it's our wild bullshit. Fundies continue to miss the irony of their critiqueing other religions as being superstitions and primitive cults.

lpetrich

Ron Garrett, thanx for taking on the thankless task of reading that North Korean leader-deification propaganda. Were my quotations a fair picture?

Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il are certainly not alone in having personality cults; they are joined by such fellow Communists as Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Josip Broz Tito, Nicolae Ceausescu, and Enver Hoxha. However, the Kims' personality cult looks over-the-top even by those others' standards.

Echo

My predictions of the stock theist answer is that they have "good reasons" to consider these alleged miracle claims to be suspect, just as they have good reasons to doubt the veracity of miracle claims associated with all sorts of other fruit loops throughout the ages. Which I would agree with.

However if we think we have pretty good reasons for considering biblical miracle stories to be questionable, then we are being irrational.