Kim Jong-suk - Legacy

Legacy

After Kim Jong-il succeeded Kim Il-sung, he began to make his mother, Kim Jong-suk, into “a revolutionary immortal.” This campaign created “a holy trinity known as the ‘Three Generals.’” Instead of touting Kim Jong-suk as the quiet woman that she was, she became the heroine of the revolution. The website of the National Democratic Front of South Korea (NDFSK) says she was “a peerless heroine. . . .an anti-Japanese heroine . . . a faithful retainer who faithfully carried out General Kim Il Sung’s will but also a lifeguard who safeguarded the General of every dangerous movement.”

Kim Jong-suk was recorded to have “conducted on-the-spot guidance sessions” and was a “great strategist.” In her home town of Hoeryong, “a museum, a library, a statue, a square and the house in which she was born devoted to the ‘Mother of Korea.’” She arranged parachute training and won several shooting competitions. One story says that she would wash Kim Il-sung’s socks and dry them in her bosom, or cut her hair and spread it in Kim Il-sung’s shoes.

Michael Harrold, in his memoir Comrades and Strangers, relates several stories he heard about Kim Jong-suk while in North Korea. According to him, there is a memorial near Mount Kumgang that marks where Kim Jong-suk stopped “when she realized she had forgotten to bring the great leader’s lunch, and had turned back to prepare something to eat for when he returned from the mountains.” Kim Jong-suk is also credited with inspiring Kim Jong-il to build the Ryugyong Hotel. Harrold relates that Kim Jong-suk told a young Kim Jong-il that he “must build tall buildings for the people, of 30 or even 40 storeys,” and the son replied that he would build housing 100 stories high. This led to the construction of the 105-story hotel.< ref name="Harrold" />