Jonathan Cheng: Japanese colonialism was a real formative experience for Korean nationalism. It’s really where Korean nationalism was born, this sense that we’re a distinct people that needs to stand on its own and be independent. But what was interesting is that the real vehicle for Korean nationalism was the Christian church. Missionaries had come to Korea — as they went to many countries — but it really took root in a way that it didn’t anywhere else in this city called Pyongyang, which, of course, today is the capital of the Kim dynasty. But at [the] time Kim Il Sung was born in the 1910s, it [was] known as the “Jerusalem of the East.” It was the most heavily Christianized city in all of Asia. And the Japanese were actually quite hesitant about cracking down on the church, because they were trying to establish to the West that they were a responsible colonial power. And so, Kim Il Sung’s own family, his father was a Korean nationalist … but in a Christian sort of a mold. He saw the church as a vehicle to win independence from the Japanese, and so he raised his son that way. 

Well, it was significant because China had greatly influenced Korea for millennia, and this was a sign of its own independence: It was putting this sacred text not into the language of the historical hegemon in China, but rather into a native Korean script. And the Japanese figured this out pretty quickly, that this was a dangerous cultural project of a certain sort. Because what it did was it fused this idea that Christianity could really be a vehicle for nationalist aspirations. 

So, the big day in Korean nationalism, if you want to put it this way, the July 4, 1776, of Korea, comes on March 1, 1919. This is at the end of World War I, and you have a declaration of independence that is penned and signed by 33 Korean nationalists. And these 33 are immortalized today in South Korea as well as in North Korea. Among these 33 signers, more than half were Christian. Many of them were pastors, and that Declaration of Independence explicitly invokes the will of God in it. It really was inspired in large part not only by the Declaration of Independence signed in the US in 1776, but also by Woodrow Wilson, who was the president at the time and who himself was the son, grandson and nephew of Presbyterian ministers. These Korean nationalists all hoped that Woodrow Wilson and his promises of self-determination for all nations would apply to Korea, and they were bitterly disappointed when that didn’t happen. That, in many ways, led to a turning away from Christianity as a vehicle for Korean aspirations. And instead of looking to the US, in 1919, they looked at what Vladimir Lenin was doing in Russia in 1917, and saw him also talk about self-determination. So, you see many of these. Korean nationalists turn away from Christianity towards socialism, and Kim Il Sung is one of them.

Yeah, so he early on recognizes that Christianity is probably not going to fulfill these aspirations, because the church in many ways was pretty established at that time, and its primary concern was not Korean nationalism; it was saving souls, focus on the hereafter. The here-and-now may not be ideal, it may not be perfect, but focus on the hereafter. And this was not a message that was very appealing to many Korean nationalists, including many who had joined the Church. It wasn’t appealing to Kim Il Sung. Instead, he ends up going into Manchuria, so in northeastern China today, and he starts drifting away from the church of his youth, and he starts falling eventually into the orbit of the Bolshevik movement. And so, you know, this is the part that’s most shrouded in mystery because Kim Il Sung and North Korea’s historians since then have really tried to paper over a lot of what happens during this period. But you do get these glimpses and you get these anecdotes that are published in North Korea that show how Kim Il Sung also becomes awakened a little bit to the power of mythology and the power of self-mythologizing. And so you see him start to begin to do this, and to build up what are really the roots of this extraordinary cult of personality that we see today in North Korea. And some of it is rooted in Christianity, but a lot of it is understanding that people need something to believe in, they need a messiah, they need a messianic figure to pin their hopes on.

I would say yes. It helped that Kim Il Sung came to power at just 33. When you compare that to Stalin and Mao, who came to power in their early 50s, he just had a lot more runway to work with. He was much younger, and he happened to live a relatively long life. He lived another 49 years. And unlike Stalin and Mao, he didn’t hand off power to someone who would then go on to reverse or even erase a lot of his legacy. This is something that is totally different. Another tenet of Marxism-Leninism was just a steadfast opposition to any sort of hereditary rule. And yet that’s precisely, of course, what we see in North Korea. 

I’m not surprised it hasn’t, because the history isn’t widely known. That’s part of the reason I felt I needed to write this book. It was hiding in plain sight. Now, there are many people in South Korea who understand this history, and it has been, at times, a common ground for some dialogue between North and South. But like many dialogues with North Korea, it hasn’t really gone anywhere. It’s gone in fits and starts. But ultimately, it’s difficult because this is not a history that North Korea necessarily wants to emphasize. 

I, myself, was raised in the Church, so I could understand much of Kim Il Sung’s upbringing. It felt very familiar to me. The difference is that I didn’t become the dictator of the country, but what’s interesting is that Kim Il Sung intuitively understood the power of faith. And I mean power both in more of a benign way, the power of love, the power of faith, but I think he also understood the raw power of faith, of how there is a natural, innate human desire to put people up on pedestals, to idolize people, almost to worship people. There’s a desire among us, and being in the 21st century hasn’t changed that. And you see that when you talk to people who have fled North Korea. Many of them are brought to freedom in South Korea through the auspices of South Korean missionaries. When these North Koreans are first introduced to the Bible … they all say the same thing: “The Christianity that you’re teaching me is identical, almost identical to what I grew up with, the Kimilsungism that I grew up with at home. It’s so similar. It’s similar, in fact, that I wonder if this Bible stuff was copied from Kimilsungism. It’s too similar to be a coincidence.” And, indeed, I don’t think it’s a coincidence.