By Kim Young-jin
North Korea appears to be idolizing the late mother of its new leader Kim Jong-un as it attempts to solidify a personality cult around him after the death of his father, the late ruler Kim Jong-il.
In an apparent move to burnish her name, the North’s main Rodong Sinmun referred to Ko Yong-hui, the senior Kim’s third wife, as the “Mother of Pyongyang” in an epic poem feting the autocrat Monday.
Analysts say the North has been cautious in mentioning Ko given her upbringing in Japan. She had been referred to as the “respected mother” in 2002 before efforts to elevate her were halted two years later after her death reportedly from cancer.
The North, which relies on a massive personality cult to justify its family rule, is thought to be emphasizing Kim Jong-un’s “royal bloodline” as it consolidates his power among the elite and over the population.
The junior Kim, thought to be in his late 20s, took power following his father’s death in December.
“There’s an all-out campaign underway to solidify Kim Jong-un’s political power, so it’s natural for the authorities to re-emphasize his mother,” said Park Young-ho, an analyst with the Korea Institute for National Unification. “The same was done for Kim Jong-il’s mother as he consolidated power.”
Though often referred to as a mistress, Ko is thought to have been the love of the late Kim’s life and is the mother of his three youngest children including the heir. She is said to have been treated with “first lady” status in the North. Born in Osaka to a father originally from Jeju Island off the southern coast of the peninsula, Ko was a professional dancer who joined Pyongyang’s Mansudae Art Troupe in the early 1970s after the family was repatriated to the North. She met Kim Jong-il shortly after.
Experts say Ko was never exalted by the North’s propaganda machine in the same way the late leader’s own mother Kim Jong-suk was, in an apparent attempt to hide her background in Pyongyang’s ultra-nationalist system. Watchers say the regime maintains power in large part by promoting a sense of pervasive nationalism based on a “pure” bloodline, a purity best represented by the bloodline of country founder Kim Il-sung.
Park said it was highly likely that the North would fabricate the details of Ko’s life as it exults her.
“She’s not well known among ordinary North Koreans, so it would be difficult for them to question any fabrications,” he said.