Kim Il-Sung and Choe Hyon

Photos dedicated to Kim Jeong-Un

After Jang Sung-Taek, Choe Ryong-Hae became the No.2 man in North Korea. However, Choe's position seems to fluctuate. From time to time, a relatively unknown fellow named Hwang Byung-See stands between Kim and Choe.

Click here for a larger image

Yes, there is a good reason why Kim Jeong-Un is afraid of Choe. Let us look at this photo, where Kim Il-Sung gives his historic speech on February 8, 1948.
The occasion was the inauguration of the KPA (north-Korean People's Army). You will see north-Korean soldiers with Mosin-Nagant rifles on their shoulders. Some of them are holding Shpagin short machine guns with their drum-like magazines. In Korea, they are called "Takung Chong" and "Dabal Chong" respectively.
These guns were used by Soviet troops while fighting against Germany during World War II. Kim Il-Sung received a bulk of them to iniitate his People's Army.
The official inaugration day was February 8, 1948, and the 8th day of February was celebrated every year as the "Ri-Pal Jeol."

I received these two photos from the same North Korean propaganda agency. It is not difficult to see which one was modified.
However, in 1971, Kim Il-Sung changed the inauguration date to April 25, 1932. At that time, Kim did not like the Soviet Union, and kicked out all Soviet advisors from his country. Kim wanted to say that his KPA has nothing to do with the Soviet Union.
Then what happened in 1932? There was in Manchu a meeting of Koreans (perhaps less then ten) with two handguns calling themselves the revolutionary fighters for liberation of the fatherland. You are invited to this photo. Presumably this photo was taken soon after the meeting. Kim was only 20 years old, and he looks like a young boy in this photo. The man in the middle was the head of this organization. His name was Choe Hyon.
Later, north-Korean authorities engineered this photo and moved Kim's position to the middle. Since I received these photos from the North's propaganda agency before and after 1970, Kim Il-Sung needed this modified photo to show that he, not Choe, was the boss of the 1932 Manchu group.
Later, Choe Hyon served as Kim Il-Sung's minister of armed forces, and his name is well known among the military people in the North. Why is this story so relevant to Kim Jeong-Un. Choe Ryong-Hae is Choe Hyon's son. In Korea, family succession is very important. Look at Korean companies. In the North, their government is a family business.
All informed Koreans in the North should know Choe Hyon, not Kim Il-Sung, was the father of the KPA, and he had a son named Choe Ryong-Hae. Thus, the KPA does not belong to Kim's family, and Jeong-Un's influence limited in the military establishment.
This seems to be the biggest problem for Kim's dynasty in the North. I would like to dedicate this webpage to Kim Jeong-Un.
Click here for more about his Kim Il-Sung's background.
Y.S.Kim (2015.3.5)
How did I get these photos? From 1965 to 1990, there were special classes in the Korean community in the United States. Korean women were privileged if their children went to Harvard, Princeton, or Yale. Korean men were distinguished if they received regularly propaganda mails from the North. I was one of those distinguished Koreans.
Of course, the Korean Embassy in Washington was aware of those N.K. propaganda mails. The Embassy once made a statement that this problem is beyond the control of the Korean government, and advised each Korean resident to make his/her own judgment on those mails. You would agree that I made a correct judgement on the three photos given on this webpage.
Click here for more about this young man.

Kim's borrowed Sebiro

Toward the end of the Pacific War in August, Japanese authorities became desperate and forced every Korean man to wear their military uniform, and we were not able to see Koreans wearing Sebiro (Western style formal dress). Even after the end of the war, not many Koreans had their Sebiros.

Soviet authorities in Pyongyang attempted to make Cho Man-Sik their puppet, but Cho refused. They then changed the name of a young Korean to Kim Il-Sung, and ordered him to make his triumph speech in October of 1945. This was the beginning of North Korea.

On October 14 of 1945, North Korea's Kim Il-Sung gave a triumph speech at a plaza in Pyongyang in a Sebiro borrowed from someone else.

Before climbing up to the podium, he had to check his appearance with two low-ranking Soviet officers. One of them was Korean-born captain named Kang Mikhail. It is said that Kim borrowed Kang's Sebiro.

Koreans were expecting their Kim Il-Sung looking like this man. He was the Polish Kim Il-Sung who fought for his country's independence while Poland was occupied by foreign powers during the 19th Century.

North Korea's Kim Il-Sung came to Korea with the first wave of Soviet troops who landed in Wonsan. He was a captain of the Soviet army. His real name was Kim Sung-Ju (pronounced as Sung-Du in Pyongyang), but he called himself Kim Young-Hwan at that time. He was an intelligence agent trusted by Stalin's hatchet man called Lavrentiy Beria.
Kim's initial duty was to convert to a Soviet puppet a respected Korean nationalist named Cho Man-Sik. But he failed. Soviet authorities then changed his name to Kim Il-Sung, and ordered him to give a triumph speech at a meeting in Pyongyang. His speech was composed in Kremlin, and was translated into Korean by a Korean poet named Ri Chan. Click here for what else he did.
The meeting took place in October 14 of 1945. The purpose of the meeting was to welcome Soviet troops and General Kim Il-Sung. Koreans were more interested in General Kim Il-Sung, and they were expecting a military man in army uniform, looking like a Polish general named Jan Henryk Dabrowski who fought for Polish independence while his country was occupied by Russia, Prussia, and Austria for 125 years until the end of the first world war in 1917. There is a Polish song entitled Mazurek Dabrowskiego to praise him. This song became later became the Polish national anthem.
Soviet authorities later asked the Korean composer named Kim Dong-Jin to compose a song praising General Kim Il-Sung, and he did, but his composition was based on the true Kim Il-Sung in the heart of all Koreans. As you know, Kim Dong-Jin moved to the South as soon as Pyongyang was liberated by (south) Korean troops in October of 1950.
Click here for the music of this song circulated by North Korean propaganda agency in the 1960s. It does not say who composed the song. Kim Jung-Il later fabricated the composer's name as Kim Wong-Gyun. We all love Kim Dong-Jin's songs, especially "Gagopa," but not many Koreans know he composed also the song of North Korea's No. 1 song.
Let us go back to the meeting that took place in Pyongyang on October 14, 1945. Quite contrary to the great expectation Koreans had for General Kim Il-Sung, the 33-year-old kid named Kim Young-Hwan appeared as Kim Il-Sung and gave his triumph speech. He was wearing a Sebiro, but it was clear to everybody that he was wearing a borrowed Sebiro.
Look at this photo. The sleeves are too long for his arms.
Here is another photo. This photo was taken right before he went to the podium to give his speech. He was escorted by two low-ranking Soviet officers. It is quite clear that his Sebiro was borrowed from someone. Some people say he borrowed it from Kang Mikhail, Korean-born Soviet officer, standing next to him.

Why is he with Einstein?