By Kim Young-jin
As North Korea builds a personality cult for new leader Kim Jong-un, his late Japanese-born mother is garnering attention as some say her background could complicate the idolization of the heir.
Among the latest reports, it appears that Ko Yong-hui, consort of the late autocrat Kim Jong-il secretly visited Japan multiple times before her death in 2004, calling attention to her past as an ethnic Korean who was living in Japan.
The details come as Pyongyang emphasizes the royal bloodline of Kim Jong-un, thought to be in his late twenties, as he attempts to take over after his father’s death of heart failure last month.
Ko visited Japan in 1997 and 2000 on her way back from France, where she received breast cancer treatment, the Mainichi Daily said citing unnamed sources. Using a fake name, she visited Tokyo and her hometown of Osaka, stayed in posh accommodations and dropped by a high-end shopping district.
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 repatriated to the North. She met Kim Jong-il shortly after.
Despite her close relationship with Kim Jong-il, Ko was never exulted by the North’s propaganda machine in the same way the leader’s own mother, Kim Jong-suk, was. Some said this was an 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.
Pyongyang has reinforced that bloodline as Jong-un rises to power, as state media footage suggests he has been coached to mimic the behavior of his grandfather. It has also continued to hail Kim Jong-suk for her “leadership” and “revolutionary sprit” while making no mention of Ko.
Local media citing intelligence reports have said that the propaganda department of the ruling Workers Party has even issued orders not to reveal Ko's background.
Meanwhile, the Japanese report said her secretive visits fell in line with various trips made by Kim family members to the country with which the North holds traditionally icy ties.
Jang Song-thaek, Kim Jong-il’s brother-in-law who is said to be the main regent for the new leader, visited Japan twice in the 1980s, posing as a member of an artistic delegation, the report said. It added that Jong-un and his older brother Jong-chul visited in 1991 using counterfeit passports.
In 2001, Jong-un’s older half brother Kim Jong-nam was nabbed trying to visit Tokyo Disneyland with a fake passport, an embarrassing incident that may have cost him any shot to be tapped as successor.
Observers said the North may be forced to idolize Jong-un’s mother as it builds his mythology, but speculated it may change the details of her life to do so.