Charles River Editors - The Kim Dynasty of North Korea: The Notorious History of the Hermit Kingdom’s Supreme Leaders

By Charles River Editors

A portrait of Kim Il-sung

Charles River Editors is a boutique digital publishing company, specializing in bringing history back to life with educational and engaging books on a wide range of topics. Keep up to date with our new and free offerings with this 5 second sign up on our weekly mailing list , and visit Our Kindle Author Page to see other recently published Kindle titles.

We make these books for you and always want to know our readers opinions, so we encourage you to leave reviews and look forward to publishing new and exciting titles each week.

The Kim Dynasty

Kim Jong-un

We are of a single nation, of the same blood, but forcibly divided. attributed to Kim Il-sung

In 2014, the International Space Station unleashed a series of photographs that had netizens around the globe simultaneously slapping their cheeks in disbelief for more reasons than one. For starters, the world was astounded by the crisp definition and stellar resolution of the images captured by the space agency's NightPod lenses, which showed striking satellite shots of the world at nighttime, illuminated by its dazzling city lights. But it was a close-up snap of the China-North Korea border that elicited reactions far greater than the rest, for the image, as terrific as it was, was equally troubling. Backed by a time-lapse video of the area, the images show an enormous patch of pitch-blackness roughly 47,000 square miles of it, to be precise flanked by 2 sweeping stretches of gold, the coruscating clusters of light marking the largest cities in the land. On one side lay the shimmering Chinese territories, and the other, the glittering grounds of South Korea. The patch of black in question was so dark it could very well be mistaken for an extension of either the Yellow Sea or the Sea of Japan.

At first glance, it would seem as if there was not an inkling of life in sight, had it not been for the tiny twinkle floating in the center of the abyss. This twinkle was none other than the city of Pyongyang, and the missing piece of the puzzle was none other than the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

North Korea has long been the butt of jokes, and it has been a longstanding target of international criticism, but the startling satellite image was anything but amusing, for it demonstrated the truly catastrophic conditions North Koreans find themselves in. Statistics show that the average South Korean uses up to 10,162 kilowatt hours of power per year, whereas their neighbors in the north consume only 739. This is only one amongst a slew of stumbling blocks affecting the state, impeding it from proper progress.

The mismatching network of sprawling, yet lifeless cities and squalid, poverty-stricken provinces stands eerily silent next to the bustling metropolises on either side of it. North Korea is trapped in an impenetrable, soundproof bubble, the entire state frozen in time. Notwithstanding a fractional sliver of the capital, where the Supreme Commander and the North Korean elites resided, the faded Pyongyang skyline and its blocky, monotone buildings while a vast improvement from the rest of the state seemed to be lifted straight out of the '70s at best.

So why is North Korea so starkly different from its neighbors when nothing more but mere borders separate them? A tyrannical lineage secured by nepotism. An entire nation indoctrinated by chilling, mindboggling propaganda, molded by fear and forced ignorance. Mass purges doled out seemingly on whims, without fair trials. Unparalleled paranoia and cold-blooded assassinations left and right, seemingly around every curve and corner. An impoverished sphere of barren wastelands inhabited by malnourished masses, orbiting a world glittering with the gross opulence and superfluous riches of the elite. These sound like the elements of a particularly perilous period of autocracy enforced by some mad monarch of a bygone era, or perhaps a generic blurb for a far-fetched thriller set in a dystopian future. Alas, the description matches the modern state of North Korea almost flawlessly.

To say that the so-called Supreme Commanders of North Korea have been sticklers for submission would trivialize the more-than-troubling state of affairs that has plagued this precarious place for decades. The fearsome Kim regime, though relatively fresh in comparison to powerful dynasties that lasted for centuries, has become one of history's most controversial bloodlines, and not without cause.

After his father, Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il was the second of the despotic Kims that have terrorized North Korea for decades. While lampooned widely across the West, Kim Jong-il, a fan of cinema, all but mastered the art of propaganda in North Korea to heighten his image. A clip from a quirky North Korean children's show that has recently emerged went so far as to depict his supernatural birth in question. A bespectacled man sporting a Mister Rogers-esque mustard sweater and a wispy, peppered beard can be seen surrounded by a group of kindergarteners who appear to be captivated by the eccentric narrator's every word. He tells them about the Great General from Heaven, who was born on what the locals call the sacred Mount Paektu, the tallest cluster of mountain ranges on the entire Korean peninsula with its staggering height of 9,000 ft.

After his fathers death in 2011, Kim Jong-un, the baby-faced 30-something with the bizarre flat-top seated at the throne today, became an object of fascination. The world watched with bated breath as the keys to the sinking ship were passed down to the young Kim, hoping for the state's long-awaited metamorphosis. It would not take long for these same wishful thinkers to realize that this young man could be far more erratic, blinkered, and inflexible than those who came before him.

Everything is decided by a person's thoughts, and if he is ideologically motivated, there is nothing he cannot do. attributed to Kim Il-sung

Despite the harrowing layers of poverty and oppression that lie at the core of the state's nest of lies, state researchers claim that North Korea is the 2 nd happiest country in the world, falling just behind China. Riots and protests are surprisingly scarce. The locals that tourists and journalists approach, regardless of their status in society, sport the same plastic smile and insist that they are more than content with their lives, made possible only by the glorious Eternal President, Kim Il-sung.

Framed portraits of the fabled Kims, which are displayed in every North Korean home, are expected to be kept in pristine condition. If a fire were to break out in one of these homes, these portraits are to be the fleeing family's first priority. Blind to the needs of the unfed populace, an estimated 34,000 bronze, marble, and plaster statues and busts have been chiseled in the likeness of Kim Il-sung, each staffed by its own set of guards and protected as if it were the living leader. Another 140,000 monuments and structures have been erected to immortalize the revolutionary heroics of the Kim family. Emergency bunkers have even been constructed below ground to house these precious artifacts in the event of a sudden declaration of war.