[KS] Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 103, Issue 13--reply on treatment of Kim Jong Un
don kirk
kirkdon at yahoo.com
Fri Jan 13 12:19:42 EST 2012
I had actually thought that many people were indeed equally worked up about Saudi Arabia, Iran and other examples cited -- thouigh the degree of concern would be hard to measure. Number of newspaper articles? Mentions on TV? Books and scholarly articles? What's the proper mode of measurement? Or are you suggesting we should address those issues before noting the suffering of the mass of North Koreans, the gulag system, puiblic executions, and disease and famine that's lowered the average height to three inches below that of SKoreans? And then there's the nuclear issue -- the need for investing multi-billions into nukes and missiles at the expense of food, medicine and much else that should go to the non-elite outside Pyongyang. Worth noting? Perhaps comparing with Iran? In writing about these problems, should we digress with a bow before the suffering of other countries and societies? Maybe "equal time"? Why not -- good idea?
Don Kirk
--- On Thu, 1/12/12, Bruce Cumings <rufus88 at uchicago.edu> wrote:
From: Bruce Cumings <rufus88 at uchicago.edu>
Subject: Re: [KS] Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 103, Issue 13--reply on treatment of Kim Jong Un
To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
Date: Thursday, January 12, 2012, 1:01 PM
I wonder if scholars and other folks who follow Saudi Arabia or Iran or Afghanistan or Egypt, wring their hands and get all worked up about thieves getting their hands cut off, or Ayatollahs who declare American “spies” to be “corrupter[s] on Earth waging war on God,” or Taliban who cut off the ears and nose off a teenager who would not marry on octogenarian, or Salafis who want women to be blanketed in the streets and otherwise shut up in the home. There is nothing surprising in what the North Koreans are saying about Kim Jong-eun. In fact, so far it is not nearly as obnoxious as the unmitigated blather about Kim Jong Il being a “genius,” getting straight A grades at Kim Il Sung University, being the pulsating “heart” of the “Mother Party,” etc. that went on for years in the 1980s. Most important, perhaps, is the anachronism of people getting “deeply depressed” about a practice that is now 65 years old, and
which mimics in “modern” form the paeans of glorification laid down for a millennium of successive Korean kings. Yes, North Korea should democratize tomorrow morning (and so should Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia). But in the meantime, try not to be so ahistorical. Below is an excerpt from my 1990 book (Origins of the Korean War, vol. 2, Princeton University Press):
In an important interview in 1947 with Kim's first biographer, an unnamed member of his guerrilla unit promoted a Kim Il Sung line that remains the official history today. Kim set the following sort of example:
This sort of person naturally has an extremely strong power of attraction to others.... And it goes without saying that a guerrilla organization with such a person at the center is incomparably strong. The sublime good fortune of our guerrilla detachment was to have at our center the Great Sun. Our general commander, great leader, sagacious teacher, and intimate friend was none other than General Kim Il Sung. Our unit was an unshakeable one, following General Kim and having General Kim as the nucleus. The General's embrace and love are like the Sun's, and when our fighters look up to and receive the General, their trust, self-sacrifice and devotion are such that they will gladly die for him.
The detachment's "philosophy of life" was their willingness to follow Kim's orders even to the death; "its strength is the strength deriving from uniting around Kim Il Sung ... our guerrillas' historical tradition is precisely that of uniting around Kim as our only leader."
Kim loved and cared for his followers, and they responded with an iron discipline for which "a spirit of obedience is needed, and what is needed for that is a spirit of respect . . . above all, the spiritual foundation [of our discipline] was this spirit of respect. And the greatest respect was for General Kim Il Sung. Our discipline grew and became strong amid respect and obedience for him.
This officer then went on to recommend the guerrilla tradition as a good principle for party and mass organizations; he might have added that it would be the principle for the organization of the entire North Korean state. ["General Kim Il Sung is the Leader of the Korean people," Podo, no.3 (August 1947), pp. 18-21.]
The language used by this man is fascinating. It is all moral language, bathing Kim in a hundred virtues, almost all of which are Confucian virtues--benevolence, love, trust, obedience, respect, reciprocity between leader and led. It is a language of circles: the phrase "uniting around Kim" uses a term, chuwi, that literally means circumference; in a neighborhood it means living around a center or chungsim, which literally means a "central heart." Synonyms for this, widely used in the North Korean literature, are "core" and "nucleus." The Party center was also a euphemism for Kim and his closest allies, just as it became the euphemism for Kim's son in the 1970s when the succession was being arranged.
This is also a language with religious resonance, both Shamanist and Christian. The term that the North Koreans translate as "to hold [Kim] in esteem," urôrô patta, literally means "to look up to and receive," and is used religiously for receiving Christ. It is also used in the sense of esteeming one's father. The term "Great Sun" resonates with Western usages placing a king in communion with the Sun [as in “Sun King”], or by extension with God, and with Japanese usages regarding the Emperor. To my knowledge, the first statue of Kim erected in the North was unveiled on Christmas Day 1949, something that suggests a conscious attempt to present him as a secular Christ, or Christ-substitute. [See for example E.M.W. Tillyard, The Elizabethan World Picture (New York: Vintage Books, 1942). On the statue, set up in Hûngnam, see Sun'gan t'ongshin, no. 3 (46) (January 1950), daily record for December l949.]
The style is also paternal, with Kim depicted as the benevolent father of the nation, and the nation compared to one large family. The strongest of emotional bonds in Korea is that of filial piety, and Kim and his allies sought to weld the nation together by drawing on vast reservoirs of duty and obligation toward one's parents, seeking to have them transferred to the state through Kim's auspices.
The process of burnishing Kim's image and uniting around him also suggests an element of chivalry, of men and women bound together by oaths of fealty, duty, obligation, and possessing amongst them uncommon virtues of courage, daring and sacrifice. It is the language of feudal warlords, and indeed Kim in the early period always used the title changgun, translated as "General," but using the same characters as the Japanese term shogun.[Kim Jong Il was also called changgun, a usage especially noticeable after he died.]
The dynamic of this politics is centrifugal-centripetal, concentric circles radiating outward from the core, embracing first the Manchurian guerrillas and their families, then the Party hierarchy, then the Army, then the people; it then falls back upon itself as each outer circle returns trust and loyalty to the center. Somewhere in between there arose a plodding, dense bureaucracy that does the day-to-day administration. But at the commanding heights this was a charismatic politics, its legitimacy resting in an overblown history and a trumpeted mythology about men with super-human qualities.
It is so characteristic of the North Koreans, then and now, that they simultaneously paper the walls with hagiography and mythology about Kim and his guerrillas, while caring little to provide any evidence that would convince an independent observer. This speaks to another characteristic of the Kim leadership, a profound solipsism, indeed a national solipsism that is also connected to the theme of concentric circles. Kim's legend and mandate would seem to stop at the national border; non-Koreans cannot be expected to appreciate its virtues. Even pre-war Japan did not try to sell kokutai to the gaijin (foreigners). But the circles keep on extending, to encompass foreigners and get them to see the virtues so obvious to North Koreans. This is far more pronounced today, when the regime organizes and funds "Juche study groups" all over the world, treating group leaders like heads of state, but it existed in the 1940s in a solipsism which seemed to
think all eyes were on Korea as the Kim leadership blazed a trail for post-colonial revolution, providing a model to emulate. It is a Korean microcosm of the old Chinese world order, radiating outward from the Middle Kingdom or central source.
Another interesting element in the 1947 interview is implicit, the suggestion that Kim Il Sung is being put forward as "Kim Il Sung," a figure larger than life, as an example for all to emulate. If all are to emulate him, he cannot put his pants on one leg at a time like anyone else, he has to be perfect. But in the conjuring of that perfection, the real man Kim Il Sung, nee Kim Sông-ju, runs the risk of being himself a symbol of power rather than holding it, being put forward by shadowy figures as the source of everyone's legitimacy. There is a hint of an Emperor system here, a figure being created who would have to be mysterious and remote [something Kim Jong Il practiced much more than his father, who was always out pressing the flesh].
Bruce Cumings, January 12, 2012
On Jan 12, 2012, at 12:00 PM, koreanstudies-request at koreaweb.ws wrote:
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<<------------ KoreanStudies mailing list DIGEST ------------>>
Today's Topics:
1. KCTV's hour-long paean to Kim Jong-un yesterday can now be
seen in full by all (Michael Rank)
2. Re: KCTV's hour-long paean to Kim Jong-un yesterday can now
be seen in full by all (????)
3. Re: KCTV's hour-long paean to Kim Jong-un yesterday can now
be seen in full by all (Charles La Shure)
4. Re: KCTV's hour-long paean to Kim Jong-un yesterday can now
be seen in f... (Afostercarter at aol.com)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:11:39 +0000
From: Michael Rank <rank at mailbox.co.uk>
To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
Subject: [KS] KCTV's hour-long paean to Kim Jong-un yesterday can now
be seen in full by all
Message-ID: <C64812CD-FA11-49DF-BD27-A2DA506A788D at mailbox.co.uk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
I have heroically viewed the entire thing, and found it a deeply
depressing experience. One of the bizarre things about it is that it
is in effect silent, and we never hear the voices of the three
geniuses. If they are so brilliant why won't the govt let the people
to hear them impart their wisdom at first hand? I believe KJI's voice
has only been heard a couple of times, once during the Albright visit
and once on an official tape, can anyone confirm? But coming back to
the above paean I noticed that it includes a genuine (insofar as
anything is genuine in DPRK) KJE (or KJU if you insist) quote, at
22.04, his very first I think. Could anyone be so kind as to translate
his words of wisdom? For what it's worth I also spotted Supreme
People's Assembly head Choe Thae Bok at 33.51, he has visited UK twice.
Best wishes,
Michael Rank
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:04:09 +0900
From: ???? <joe.litt83 at gmail.com>
To: Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
Subject: Re: [KS] KCTV's hour-long paean to Kim Jong-un yesterday can
now be seen in full by all
Message-ID: <7ABE09BE-48BC-4A81-AB5D-C82B2EE75D68 at gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Michael,
KJI's voice was also recorded during both inter-Korean summits. The last recording was when he met Dmitry Medvedev in August of last year. I'm sure there a couple of other times I'm missing.
Here's the final recording:
http://www.reuters.com/video/2011/08/24/kim-jong-il-medvedev-meet-in-russia?&videoId=218631784
Best,
Joe
Sent from my iPhone
On 2012. 1. 12., at 4:11, Michael Rank <rank at mailbox.co.uk> wrote:
I have heroically viewed the entire thing, and found it a deeply depressing experience. One of the bizarre things about it is that it is in effect silent, and we never hear the voices of the three geniuses. If they are so brilliant why won't the govt let the people to hear them impart their wisdom at first hand? I believe KJI's voice has only been heard a couple of times, once during the Albright visit and once on an official tape, can anyone confirm? But coming back to the above paean I noticed that it includes a genuine (insofar as anything is genuine in DPRK) KJE (or KJU if you insist) quote, at 22.04, his very first I think. Could anyone be so kind as to translate his words of wisdom? For what it's worth I also spotted Supreme People's Assembly head Choe Thae Bok at 33.51, he has visited UK twice.
Best wishes,
Michael Rank
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:29:15 +0900
From: Charles La Shure <clashure at gmail.com>
To: Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
Subject: Re: [KS] KCTV's hour-long paean to Kim Jong-un yesterday can
now be seen in full by all
Message-ID:
<CANguMmw5vAMvR_M1ZjmdtPgQsC2yr9RT42CF1r8eQ83WNnOaNw at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Alas, the words of wisdom are not as profound as one might hope. I humbly
offer a quick and rough translation:
"I am accustomed to working through the night and so am not bothered by it.
The most joyous and happiest moments for me are when I can bring joy to the
comrade supreme commander. Thus, though I have stayed up several nights, I
have worked without knowing weariness. Even when I work through several
nights, once I have brought joy to the comrade supreme commander, the
weariness vanishes and a new strength courses through my whole body. This
must be what revolutionaries live for."
-C. La Shure
On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 4:11 AM, Michael Rank <rank at mailbox.co.uk> wrote:
I have heroically viewed the entire thing, and found it a deeply
depressing experience. One of the bizarre things about it is that it is in
effect silent, and we never hear the voices of the three geniuses. If they
are so brilliant why won't the govt let the people to hear them impart
their wisdom at first hand? I believe KJI's voice has only been heard a
couple of times, once during the Albright visit and once on an official
tape, can anyone confirm? But coming back to the above paean I noticed that
it includes a genuine (insofar as anything is genuine in DPRK) KJE (or KJU
if you insist) quote, at 22.04, his very first I think. Could anyone be so
kind as to translate his words of wisdom? For what it's worth I also
spotted Supreme People's Assembly head Choe Thae Bok at 33.51, he has
visited UK twice.
Best wishes,
Michael Rank
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Message: 4
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2012 04:53:22 -0500 (EST)
From: Afostercarter at aol.com
To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws, baks at jiscmail.ac.uk, members at asck.org
Cc: rank at mailbox.co.uk, coyner at gol.com, Philip at londonkoreanlinks.net
Subject: Re: [KS] KCTV's hour-long paean to Kim Jong-un yesterday can
now be seen in f...
Message-ID: <a066.60cd10d.3c400792 at aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Adam Cathcart (again) has now kindly provided
an annotated commentary/guide to the whole programme:
_http://sinonk.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/songun-tangun-son-of-paektu-etc-kim-
jong-un-documentary/_
(http://sinonk.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/songun-tangun-son-of-paektu-etc-kim-jong-un-documentary/)
I've seen posts on sayings by KJU, but can't immediately find them.
Cheers
Aidan FC
Aidan Foster-Carter
Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds
University, UK
E: _afostercarter at aol.com_ (mailto:afostercarter at aol.com)
_afostercarter at yahoo.com_ (mailto:afostercarter at yahoo.com) W: _www.aidanfc.net_
(http://www.aidanfc.net/)
W in Korea:
_http://web.archive.org/web/20090202080126/http://aidanfc.net/index.html_
(http://web.archive.org/web/20090202080126/http:/aidanfc.net/index.html)
Address/mail: Flat 1, 40 Magdalen Road, Exeter, Devon, EX2 4TE,
England, UK
T: (+44, no 0) 07970 741307 (mobile); 01392 257753 (home)
Skype: Aidan.Foster.Carter Twitter: @fcaidan
_____________
In a message dated 1/12/2012 09:41:28 GMT Standard Time, rank at mailbox.co.uk
writes:
I have heroically viewed the entire thing, and found it a deeply
depressing experience. One of the bizarre things about it is that it
is in effect silent, and we never hear the voices of the three
geniuses. If they are so brilliant why won't the govt let the people
to hear them impart their wisdom at first hand? I believe KJI's voice
has only been heard a couple of times, once during the Albright visit
and once on an official tape, can anyone confirm? But coming back to
the above paean I noticed that it includes a genuine (insofar as
anything is genuine in DPRK) KJE (or KJU if you insist) quote, at
22.04, his very first I think. Could anyone be so kind as to translate
his words of wisdom? For what it's worth I also spotted Supreme
People's Assembly head Choe Thae Bok at 33.51, he has visited UK twice.
Best wishes,
Michael Rank
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End of Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 103, Issue 13
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