N.K. marks anniversary of founder’s death North Korean people offer flowers in front of statues of North Korea’s founder Kim Il-sung (L) and his son Kim Jong-il, the previous leader who died in 2011, on Mansu Hill in Pyongyang on July 8, 2023, to mark the 29th anniversary of the North’s founder’s death, in this photo released on July 10 by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. (Yonhap)
N.K. leader wearing white uniform reminiscent of grandfather North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (L), wearing the white uniform of a marshal, appears at a military parade at Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang on April 25, 2022, to mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army, in this photo released the next day by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. His appearance in a white uniform is reminiscent of his grandfather, the North’s founder Kim Il-sung (R), who held a victory parade in Pyongyang right after the July 1953 armistice agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. Kim Il-sung appeared wearing a white uniform, which is recognized by the country’s residents as a clear indication of his position as supreme commander. The identical attire worn by the two is interpreted as the North’s apparent attempt to step up idolization of Kim Jong-un and consolidate his power. (Yonhap)
During #DPRK famine, Kim Jong Il built: 100 exhibition room facility 200m beneath ultra-weird Int'l Friendship museum $800M mausoleo-palace Spent $1.5B on fighter jets, $7B/year on defense.
Pocheon City just announced it'll spend ₩5.4B ($4.8 million) to restore Kim Il-sung's villa. Where is Pocheon? Not in North Korea, but South Korea, between Seoul & Cholwon (on the invasion corridor to Seoul). While glorifying KIS, they vilify many SK presidents. Mind boggling. pic.twitter.com/cmFofCi459
Photo exhibition on Kim Il-sung’s visit to VietnamRi Su-yong (C), vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, visits a photo exhibition at the Vietnamese Embassy in Pyongyang on Nov. 29, 2018, to mark the 60th anniversary of a visit to Vietnam by state founder Kim Il-sung, in this photo released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency. (Yonhap)
I don’t think anyone will be surprised to find out that former President Jimmy Carter tried to hold a peace conference with the North Koreans back in 1979:
The United States pushed for high-level talks with South and North Korea on reducing military tensions in the late 1970s amid a controversy over a troop pullout or reduction plan, declassified diplomatic documents showed Sunday.
The rift between the presidents of the allies at that time — Park Chung-hee and Jimmy Carter — about the size of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) was highlighted in a transcript of their talks in Seoul on June 30, 1979.
“I can’t promise that we will freeze forces levels,” Carter told Park, according to a White House document on their hourlong conversation.
Carter questioned South Korea’s commitment to a hike in defense budgets to counter North Korea’s rapid military buildup.
Park stressed his military was making efforts to beef up combat power but needed more time.
Cater asked, “My understanding is that you are particularly concerned about the presence of the Second (Infantry) Division and the Combined Forces Command. Do you also want the U.S. to maintain its protective nuclear umbrella as well?”
Park said yes. And Carter asked again, “If we decide to modify or reduce other force levels, you would like adequate notification and consultations?”
Park also said yes.
In the summit, Carter confirmed South Korea’s clear opposition to either the withdrawal of the USFK or a scale-down, with the North’s military threats growing. The 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
Carter soon accelerated a drive for dialogue with North Korea on easing tensions. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but Carter tried to hold a summit with the ROK and North Korea in Jakarta, Indonesia. It never happened because the Kim Il-sung regime blew him off.
A ceremony is under way at a stadium in Pyongyang on April 14, 2018, to mark the 106th birthday of late North Korean leader Kim Il-sung. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported it on the following day. (Yonhap)
I would not be surprised at all if this mask was intended by the North Koreans to look a little like Kim Il-sung just to stick it to South Korea’s conservatives who have been critical of the Kim regime’s participation in the Winter Olympics:
North Korean cheerleaders wear identical masks showing a man’s face during an ice hockey match involving the joint team of the two Koreas on Feb. 10, 2018. (Yonhap)
The unification ministry on Sunday denied a local news report that the image of North Korea’s late founding leader Kim Il-sung appeared on the mask worn by North Korean cheerleaders during an ice hockey match involving the unified team of the two Koreas.
The female cheerleaders, dressed in red, put the masks on while rooting for the women’s ice hockey team comprising athletes from the South and the North as the team played its first match Saturday against Switzerland during the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
The mask bore the image of a man, and a local media outlet reported that it was an image of the North’s revered founder when he was young. That report sparked criticism that the North was using the Olympic event for propaganda purposes.
But the South’s unification ministry said the report was based on an incorrect assumption.
“After checking with a North Korean official at the scene, it has been confirmed that there was no such meaning whatsoever, as assumed in the report,” the ministry said in a release, adding that the North Korean official also confirmed it was impossible to use an image of the North’s founding leader in such a way.
Officials said it was just an image of a good-looking man and the mask was worn when the cheerleaders sang a North Korean song, “Whistle,” whose lyrics are about a man’s unrequited love for a female neighbor. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but the left in South Korea is claiming this is all fake news drummed up by South Korea’s conservatives. Here is a picture of the young Kim Il-sung, I will let readers be the judge if it was a young Kim Il-sung mask or not. Here is a picture of a young Kim Il-sung (center) with his wife Kim Jong-suk (right), and his son Kim Jong-il (left):
Below is a fascinating read in the Nikkei Asian Review about how the Kim regime has long claimed that Northeastern China should be ceded to North Korea:
Sino-North Korean relations have traversed three eras in China — under Mao, Deng and Xi — and a North Korean dynasty of three Kims — Il Sung, Jong Il and Jong Un.
Back in May 2000, Kim Jong Il made his first trip to China as North Korea’s top leader. An informal visit, it was kept under wraps until Kim, the father of North Korea’s current leader, returned to Pyongyang.
Kim had a big request for Jiang Zemin, then China’s president.
“I am preparing for an inspection of the northeast region [of China],” Kim told Jiang. “Could you make arrangements for it?”
Jiang’s face contorted into a quizzical expression. The word Kim used was the Korean equivalent of shicha, a Chinese term meaning inspection. Inspections are what leaders conduct to see how their own common people are doing.
Kim’s use of inspection not only contradicted reality, it was disrespectful to China.
Jiang told Kim in a calm manner, “In your case, you mean visit, correct?”
“No,” Kim snapped back immediately. “It is an inspection. My father [Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s first leader] told me that the entire ‘northeast’ belongs to us.”
Stunned by Kim’s response, Jiang asked the North Korean leader, “How can the ‘northeast’ be all yours?”
“This is not my father’s view,” Kim said. “This is a remark made by Chairman Mao Zedong,” the founding father of the People’s Republic of China.
Again, Jiang was flabbergasted. This time, he summoned an official from the Communist Party’s International Liaison Department and ordered him to check whether Mao had actually made such a remark in the past.
The official reported back to Jiang the following afternoon, confirming Mao’s remarks. [Nikkei Asian Review]
You can read the rest at the link, but Mao made a comment to Kim Il-sung how prior Korean dynasties had been pushed out of Northeast China to south of the Yalu River by past Chinese emperors. Kim Il-sung used that comment to justify North Korea being ceded a chunk of Northeast China which Chinese leaders over the years have scoffed at to include when Kim Jong-il brought it up. It is unclear if the current North Korean leader Kim Jong-un shares such delusions of grandeur, but considering that his grandfather and father believed in it, I would not be surprised if Kim Jong-un doesn’t bring up the issue again at some point with China as well.
