Speaker 1: On the border of North Korea and China, is a lake.
Speaker 1: It's nestled within the caldera at the center of a
Speaker 1: dormant volcano, surrounded by sixteen jagged mountain peaks. The cliffs
Speaker 1: are dark and steep, poked with moss and caps of
Speaker 1: shimmering ice and snow. They tumble into deep blue water,
Speaker 1: glassy and still. This is Heaven Lake on Mount pet two,
Speaker 1: the highest point in North Korea. For Koreans both North
Speaker 1: and South, this is a special place. The special place.
Speaker 1: According to ancient folklore, this is where the Korean people originated.
Speaker 1: More than four thousand years ago, the mythological god king
Speaker 1: Tangun descended from heaven and was born right here. He'd
Speaker 1: become the first ruler of Korea. Over centuries, empires rose
Speaker 1: and fell, the Puyo Kingdom, the Koo Powers, the Chosun dynasty.
Speaker 1: Ruling families came and went, but one thing bound them all.
Speaker 1: They never stopped revering the mountain as their spiritual home.
Speaker 1: Like Tangun before them, these families justified their power by
Speaker 1: declaring themselves sons of Heaven, as descendants of Mount Pictwo
Speaker 1: and the story of Tangun. It's not the only legend
Speaker 1: associated with this sacred place. In fact, there are two
Speaker 1: other stories that every student in North Korea by age
Speaker 1: five must know by heart. The first is the story
Speaker 1: of a young Kim Io Song, a scrappy guerrilla fighter
Speaker 1: who risked life and limb to fend off Japanese invaders,
Speaker 1: waging fearless battle on the slopes of the Great Mountain.
Speaker 1: The second is the story of his son, Kim jong Il,
Speaker 1: who they say was born by heaven lake in a
Speaker 1: small wooden cabin. Upon his birth, a single bright star
Speaker 1: appeared in the twilight, a double rainbow magically streaming across
Speaker 1: the mountaintops, like Tangun and the pedigree of emperors before them.
Speaker 1: Both Kim's would use these stories to claim a mandate
Speaker 1: from heaven, a spiritual calling to become the father figures
Speaker 1: of the Korean people, because coursing through their veins was
Speaker 1: the stuff of legends, the fabled blood of Mount Peck two.
Speaker 1: I guess you could say that Mount Peck two is
Speaker 1: to North Korea what the bald Eagle is to the
Speaker 1: United States. It's a national symbol, emblazoned on the country's emblem,
Speaker 1: its name plastered on everything from power plants to torpedoes.
Speaker 1: But that doesn't even do it justice. It's magical, mythical today,
Speaker 1: the mountains lore, the notion that this place spawned a
Speaker 1: pure blood line of leaders is the glue that holds
Speaker 1: the Kim personality called together, and it's the reason Kim
Speaker 1: jong Nam's assassination was so shocking, so galling, because according
Speaker 1: to centuries of myth and tradition, Kim jong Nam's blood
Speaker 1: was more than us royal, it was divine, and he
Speaker 1: was first in line to the throne. I'm even lee
Speaker 1: in this episode inside the myths and machinations that revealed
Speaker 1: the Kim family to be not divine rulers but ruthless infighters,
Speaker 1: a family that competes not just for glory and power,
Speaker 1: but also for survival. It's pretty obscene the way Kim
Speaker 1: jong Nam was raised. They were like brother and sister.
Speaker 1: They were each other's only friends. I can just paraphrase
Speaker 1: what he said, which was, my father replaced me with
Speaker 1: his new family, and that was pretty devastating. This is
Speaker 1: big brother. The assassination of Kim jong Nam may have
Speaker 1: happened in but the circumstances that led to his death
Speaker 1: decades in the making, and it all started, as so
Speaker 1: many epic tales do, with a love story and the
Speaker 1: collision of two warring families vying for the same affection.
Speaker 1: It was the nineteen sixties and Kim Jong il was
Speaker 1: just a twentysomething making propaganda for his father's political party,
Speaker 1: the Workers Party of Korea. And Kim Jong Il was
Speaker 1: a master of his trade. The propaganda was just brilliant.
Speaker 1: That's Bradley Martin, a newspaper journalist. I've worked for a Newsweek,
Speaker 1: the Roll Street Journal, Bloomberg News, and the author of
Speaker 1: the book Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader.
Speaker 1: He's reported on the Kim dynasty for decades. One of
Speaker 1: the greatest of the propagandists Roz Kim Jong Hill. He
Speaker 1: was a super producer and he really knew what he
Speaker 1: was doing with propaganda. As a propagandist, Kim Jong Il
Speaker 1: was the head of North Korea's motion picture division, making
Speaker 1: films that enhanced the regime's messaging and bolstered his father's personality.
Speaker 1: Cult To say Kim Jong Il enjoyed making movies is
Speaker 1: an understatement. The man was obsessed with cinema, action, romance, horror,
Speaker 1: you name it, Kim Jong Il devoured it. He was
Speaker 1: a devoted fan of everything from James Bond to vend It.
Speaker 1: Like Beckham, he reportedly owned more than thirty thousand movie
Speaker 1: titles in his personal theater, including a substantial stash of
Speaker 1: very illegal pornography. Chang I loved films so much that
Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventies he abducted one of South Korea's
Speaker 1: most famous directors. A team of henchmen secretly crossed the border,
Speaker 1: tailed the director, threw a bag over his head, and
Speaker 1: transported him to a work camp in the North, where
Speaker 1: he lived on a diet of rice and grass. Kim
Speaker 1: forced the movie maker to direct films for the regime,
Speaker 1: including a comically cheesy rip off of Godzilla called Pugati,
Speaker 1: and this love of cinema would shape Kim Jong Il's
Speaker 1: romantic life too. In the late nineteen sixties, Chang I
Speaker 1: was walking through a film studio when he bumped into
Speaker 1: an actress named tong headium The princeling was immediately star struck.
Speaker 1: Tongam was North Korea's biggest movie star, A thirty one
Speaker 1: year old bombshell. She was born in the South but
Speaker 1: had moved north as a child. As an actress, she
Speaker 1: had multiple lead roles to her credit and even attended
Speaker 1: international film festivals. For a movie buff like Kim jong il,
Speaker 1: it was like meeting Marilyn Monroe in her prime. It
Speaker 1: was love at first sight. Tongden was married with children,
Speaker 1: but for a member of the pic two bloodline, that
Speaker 1: was no obstacle. Jan Ille forced the actress to divorce
Speaker 1: and sent her ex husband out of country to quote work.
Speaker 1: The two never married, but they did start a relationship
Speaker 1: and in the couple had a child, a baby boy.
Speaker 1: Kim Jong il could hardly contain the news. In his book,
Speaker 1: Bradley Martin writes that Kim was so excited by the
Speaker 1: arrival of his son that he quote honked his car
Speaker 1: horn to awaken everyone in the hospital. But there was
Speaker 1: one person he refused to tell, his father, the supreme leader,
Speaker 1: Kim ils hung. North Korea was and remains a very
Speaker 1: socially conservative society. Kim il sung preached conventional family values.
Speaker 1: Extramarital affairs were illegal, divorce was frowned upon, and having
Speaker 1: a child out of wedlock it was inadmissible. And Kim
Speaker 1: Jong il, he had flirted with all three. He knew
Speaker 1: his father would never accept his decision to pair off
Speaker 1: with the actress, especially a divorcee born in South Korea.
Speaker 1: But Kim jong il was a virtuoso of propaganda. He
Speaker 1: had a talent for hiding inconvenient information, so he successfully
Speaker 1: kept the relationship and the existence of his own son
Speaker 1: from his father for four years rs. But even the
Speaker 1: greatest propagandists can stumble. The secret eventually leaked, and when
Speaker 1: kimio sung learned about his son's love child, he was furious,
Speaker 1: that is until he met the little boy. According to
Speaker 1: one telling, when kimio sung saw his grandson for the
Speaker 1: first time, his eyes flooded with tears. This, after all,
Speaker 1: was his first male grandchild. Pet two blood was coursing
Speaker 1: through his veins, and when he picked up the child
Speaker 1: and held him in his arms, he felt like he
Speaker 1: was holding the future of the nation. So kimio Song
Speaker 1: gave his grandson a name Kim chong nam in Korean,
Speaker 1: it means loyal man. Now with his father's blessing, Kim
Speaker 1: jong il felt free to shower his newborn son with affection,
Speaker 1: pampering and spoiling him. Kim jong il was a really
Speaker 1: doting father That again is Anna Fifield, journalists and author
Speaker 1: of The Great Successor. He was out there during the
Speaker 1: day during his day job being a tyrant, but he
Speaker 1: loved coming home to the palatial compound there and playing
Speaker 1: with Kim jong Nam. The two seemed inseparable. Father and
Speaker 1: son shared the same bed, a common practice in traditional
Speaker 1: Korean society. For eight years. Each night, Kim jong Il
Speaker 1: gently rocked and cradled his son to sleep. When Kim
Speaker 1: Jong Nam was a toddler, his father began spoiling him
Speaker 1: with every gift a child could dream of, and then some.
Speaker 1: He had this massive playhouse filled with toys. He had
Speaker 1: you know, lego brought in from Denmark and like top
Speaker 1: of the range toys brought from everywhere. He had mangoes imported.
Speaker 1: He had clothes brought from the UK. You know, anything
Speaker 1: he could ever desire. And you know, well beyond his
Speaker 1: wild imagination he had. He had a little a little
Speaker 1: golf buggy that he could zoom around on his own
Speaker 1: zoo with a real bear in it. Um He lived
Speaker 1: this ridiculous, pampered life. Kim Jong Nam and his mother's
Speaker 1: extended family lived in their own wild off compound in Pyongyang,
Speaker 1: an opulent palace called Residents Number fifteen. They had a
Speaker 1: hundred servants, five hundred bodyguards, and eight cooks. Anything the
Speaker 1: child demanded was his. His father made sure of it.
Speaker 1: According to Bradley Martin, Kim jong il assigned a special
Speaker 1: unit of bureaucrats to travel the globe to purchase gifts
Speaker 1: for his son's birthdays, buying him everything from video games
Speaker 1: to diamond wrist watches. You could have anything. You want.
Speaker 1: A revolver, here's a revolver. You know, you want an automobile.
Speaker 1: Here's a here's a little automobile you can drive around.
Speaker 1: You want bars of gold, you have some bars of gold.
Speaker 1: It's pretty obscene the way Kim jong Nam was raised.
Speaker 1: But there was one thing that young Kim jong Nam
Speaker 1: couldn't have, and that was friends. Because although Kim jong
Speaker 1: Nam might not have been a dirty secret around his
Speaker 1: grandfather anymore, his existence was still shielded from the public,
Speaker 1: as well as from most government officials. The princeling was
Speaker 1: confined to his palace, forbidden to trek beyond its walls
Speaker 1: to see how regular people lived. His playmates consisted of
Speaker 1: two adults, a painter and film technician who had been
Speaker 1: appointed to be his official friends. For years, Kim Jong
Speaker 1: Nam wouldn't know a single soul his own age. He
Speaker 1: would have to make do with his father's love, plus
Speaker 1: the occasional bar of gold. Family life was strained elsewhere too.
Speaker 1: Because of the deep love Kim Jong Ill felt for
Speaker 1: his son, it didn't translate to the boy's mother. The
Speaker 1: honeymoon phase was long over and their relationship had all
Speaker 1: but collapsed. The former actress was deeply unhappy. She missed
Speaker 1: the stage, the adrenaline fueled glow of a film set.
Speaker 1: She wanted to play movie roles, not the role of
Speaker 1: a subservient housekeeper, and despite living in the lap of luxury,
Speaker 1: she was tired of being treated as a dirty secret.
Speaker 1: Here again is the founder of North Curre. You watch
Speaker 1: Michael Madden, whose audio will remind you was distorted, hence
Speaker 1: the voiceover. Even though you live in these beautiful villas
Speaker 1: with swimming pools and the best food and access to television,
Speaker 1: you're essentially under a glorified house arrest, and Kim Jong
Speaker 1: Ill didn't have patience for any of the woman's feelings.
Speaker 1: His love for her faded years earlier. Kim had once
Speaker 1: called her his yell ball or wife, but now he
Speaker 1: had downgraded her title to quote the mother of my son.
Speaker 1: The relationship grew hostile, and as Kim jong Il became
Speaker 1: more and more distant, her mental health began to spiral in.
Speaker 1: Living in the house of Kim Jong Ill was a
Speaker 1: very stressful experience. Kim Jong Ill was a fairly moody guy,
Speaker 1: and he was the most powerful man in the country,
Speaker 1: so living around him was basically an exercise and walking
Speaker 1: on eggshells. And then Kim jong Il decided he had
Speaker 1: had enough. It was time to kick the woman out
Speaker 1: of his life for good. But their son, he decided,
Speaker 1: would stay with him. Hongheading panicked at the news, she
Speaker 1: scooped Kim jong Nam into her arms and sprinted for
Speaker 1: the palace doors, Desperate to make an escape, She didn't
Speaker 1: get far before the guards stopped her. Shortly after, she
Speaker 1: was sent to Moscow for quote medical treatment. Aside from
Speaker 1: a few failed attempts to return home, she'd spend the
Speaker 1: remainder of her life in Russia mired and depression. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: at Residence Number fifteen, a young Kim Jong Nam went
Speaker 1: back to being treated as a state's secret. He was
Speaker 1: friendless and now motherless. And soon he would begin to
Speaker 1: feel fatherless too. We want to step back for a
Speaker 1: moment and take a detour. Too many of us, North
Speaker 1: Korea can seem well, a little bit crazy. It's this small,
Speaker 1: bellicost country with nuclear weapons, led by a man with
Speaker 1: funny hair and comically bad propaganda. The leaders seem psychotic.
Speaker 1: They run googlogs. But at the same time, we'll hack
Speaker 1: a company sir verse because of a Seth Rogan film.
Speaker 1: The state media announces menacing missile launches while almost in
Speaker 1: the same breath claiming that they just discovered a unicorn
Speaker 1: layer in a cave. It can be hard to take
Speaker 1: North Korea seriously, but over the course of reporting this podcast,
Speaker 1: almost every expert we spoke to kept making the same
Speaker 1: point that North Korea is, in fact not irrational and
Speaker 1: it's definitely not unpredictable. A lot of the mainstream media's
Speaker 1: obsession with North Korea now borders on caricatures and the eccentric,
Speaker 1: But really, North Korea is a deeply serious and rational country.
Speaker 1: When you look at it as a sovereign country with
Speaker 1: its own strategic interest, a lot of the moves that
Speaker 1: it makes make a lot of sense. North Korea is
Speaker 1: not only not crazy, but very careful methodical in the
Speaker 1: way North Korea just tries to paint its adversaries into
Speaker 1: a corner. The point is to understand the death of
Speaker 1: Kim Jong Nam, you need to understand what drives North
Speaker 1: Korea and most of us, well, we don't understand, but
Speaker 1: it's possible to make sense of it. Take for instance,
Speaker 1: the Kim personality cult. It's not the only country with
Speaker 1: a personality cult, but it is one of the most effective.
Speaker 1: And the reason has a lot to do with Confucianism.
Speaker 1: Confucianism is deeply embedded in North Korean society. That's Dr
Speaker 1: Sung Unually, a professor at Tufts University. He's an expert
Speaker 1: on North Korea US relations as well as history. Confucianism
Speaker 1: has been the most prominent ideology in Korean history since
Speaker 1: about the year fourteen. Confucius never stepped foot on the
Speaker 1: Korean peninsula, but his life's work saturates the region's value
Speaker 1: system both North and South. Take North Korea's propaganda, for example,
Speaker 1: the films cooked up by Kim Jong il in the
Speaker 1: nineteen sixties painted the Supreme leader as universally benevolent, even omniscient.
Speaker 1: The leader's talents no no bounds. Kim Jong Ill, after all,
Speaker 1: supposedly wrote six operas and could hit eighteen holes in one.
Speaker 1: It's ridiculous, but the strategy makes some sense in the
Speaker 1: context of Confucianism. Confucius experienced deep instability during his lifetime,
Speaker 1: and he dreamed of bringing peace to the bloodshed around him.
Speaker 1: He preached strategies that he believed could coax order from
Speaker 1: the chaos. In solution was virtue. In Confucian society, a
Speaker 1: leader rules not by force, but by virtue, and the
Speaker 1: Kim family knows this, so they push a narrative, one
Speaker 1: that constantly reminds the populace over and over and over,
Speaker 1: how dear, how great, how benevolent, how kind, and how
Speaker 1: caring their leader is. This desire to appear virtuous, mixed
Speaker 1: with the peck two myth of divine rule, creates a
Speaker 1: noxious ideology that basically treats the Kims as God's and
Speaker 1: if they're to be worshiped like God's, then they must
Speaker 1: have the virtues and the abilities of God's. As a result,
Speaker 1: North Korea has outstalinized Stalin. North Korea's cult of personality
Speaker 1: puts the cult of Chairman mob in China or Stalin
Speaker 1: in the former Soviet Union to shame. And that's why
Speaker 1: Kim Jong il had to keep his private life a secret.
Speaker 1: If news ever spread to the common people about his
Speaker 1: illicit relationship with an actress or his love child, it
Speaker 1: could soil this carefully calibrated image. It could be especially
Speaker 1: dangerous if this knowledge ever fell into the hands of
Speaker 1: a competitor or some military figure who wanted to stage
Speaker 1: a coup. This information could be used against him to
Speaker 1: puncture that godlike persona. Because the other element of Confucianism
Speaker 1: revolves around hierarchy, what are the common characteristics of Confucianism?
Speaker 1: Respectful communal values, respect for society, respectful authority, respect for
Speaker 1: the nation, putting the family about the individual, the society
Speaker 1: above the family, and the state above all. Confucius believed
Speaker 1: in the society built upon strong hierarchies with strict obedience
Speaker 1: to authorities. This, he said, could foster stability, and the
Speaker 1: system has a proven track record. According to Dr Lee,
Speaker 1: Korea's ancient dynasties flourished because of this dogmatic loyalty to
Speaker 1: superiors and the willingness to put society before the self.
Speaker 1: Confucian societies are more cohesive to when it comes to
Speaker 1: national calamities, war, the pandemic. People are more prone to
Speaker 1: sacrificing their individual privacy and their individual rights for the
Speaker 1: sake of the greater good of society. This respect for
Speaker 1: hierarchy is the reason young people both North and South
Speaker 1: are expected to show constant obedience to their parents, to teachers,
Speaker 1: and the government offici shoals. There are three bonds so
Speaker 1: cold in Confucianism. First the bureaucrat, the official submits himself
Speaker 1: to the king, and then the gross gender inequality women,
Speaker 1: the wife submits herself to the husband and later even
Speaker 1: to her own son. And then filial piety the son
Speaker 1: submits to the father. But it's filial piety, submission and
Speaker 1: loyalty to your father's reputation that really drives the culture.
Speaker 1: And in North Korea everybody has the same symbolic father.
Speaker 1: The man with peck two blood Kim ils Hung. This
Speaker 1: is no mistake, this is a brilliant strategy. The Kims
Speaker 1: have used propaganda to hijack traditional Confucian values and seize
Speaker 1: upon the national myth of the Peck two bloodline to
Speaker 1: serve their own interests and to feed their own power.
Speaker 1: It was a way for Kim Ala Song to essentially
Speaker 1: guarantee that he was going to be front and center
Speaker 1: of the North Korean system. That you may remember is Dr.
Speaker 1: Benjamin Young, a historian at Virginia Commonwealth University. There was
Speaker 1: actually a slogan in uh North Koreator in the Cold
Speaker 1: War era that literally said koreas Kimbelsung. Kimmel Sung is Korea.
Speaker 1: The Kim family personality called It is ubiquitous within North Korea,
Speaker 1: from slogans and posters to school children learning poems about
Speaker 1: the greatness of Kimmel Song. I really can't escape it.
Speaker 1: It is central to the North Korean way of life,
Speaker 1: and there is nothing to rival or challenge that messaging.
Speaker 1: In fact, the government is the only source of information.
Speaker 1: This persistent burrage of propaganda has a way of bending
Speaker 1: and breaking people's minds into submission. So the people of
Speaker 1: North Korea believe these stories, whether through real devotion or
Speaker 1: fear of what might happen if they don't. It helps
Speaker 1: breed political loyalty and simultaneously quashes any grassroots opposition. And
Speaker 1: total fidelity to the image of one man, one family
Speaker 1: has the power to turn normal people into monsters. Look
Speaker 1: no further than Kim Chang Ill. In the nine seventies,
Speaker 1: when Kim jong Nam was just a little boy, his
Speaker 1: father was preparing to become the nation's next ruler. He
Speaker 1: was the chosen son of heaven, a pick to air,
Speaker 1: and he had an image to maintain, a godlike image,
Speaker 1: and that's probably why he sent the mother of his
Speaker 1: firstborn son to Moscow. If she stayed in North Korea,
Speaker 1: it was guaranteed that gossip about their relationship would reach
Speaker 1: the public. So he exiled her, banishing her to a
Speaker 1: foreign mental facility, and in the process, his cruelty affected
Speaker 1: his son. He deprived Kim jong Nam of a mother.
Speaker 1: In fact, Kim jong Il would go to extreme lengths
Speaker 1: to ensure that the boy and his mother would remain
Speaker 1: a state secret. We know this because at the time,
Speaker 1: a group of young North Korean students were living in Moscow.
Speaker 1: One day, a student somehow learned about Kim jong il's
Speaker 1: mentally distressed mistress. Words spread that she lived nearby, somewhere
Speaker 1: in the Soviet Union. The gossip spread all the way
Speaker 1: back to Kiang Yang, and Kim jong Il was horrified.
Speaker 1: In an effort to shut down the rumor mill, he
Speaker 1: sent a security team to Russia. Kim's communist goons arrived
Speaker 1: in Moscow, rounded up all the university students and interrogated them.
Speaker 1: Anybody who acknowledged knowing anything about the ex mistress or
Speaker 1: her whereabouts or her child was immediately executed. Turns out,
Speaker 1: Kim jong Nam was a secret worth killing for. For
Speaker 1: most of his childhood, Kim jong Nam was functionally locked
Speaker 1: in a palace, cut off from the outside world. The
Speaker 1: boy passed his time and activity by reading books, drawing pictures,
Speaker 1: and naturally, watching movies, and his father continued to spoil him.
Speaker 1: One time, when the little prince had a toothache, Kim
Speaker 1: Jong ille convinced him to go to the dentist by
Speaker 1: gifting him a Cadillac. When he turned eight, his father
Speaker 1: threw him a birthday party, where instead of toys, he
Speaker 1: was given a military uniform and the rank of martial.
Speaker 1: In a nod to his future rank, palace workers began
Speaker 1: referring to the boy as little Comrade General. Later that night,
Speaker 1: a fireworks display spelled out the words Happy birthday, Comrade
Speaker 1: General in the sky. Nothing was too much to ask for.
Speaker 1: On one occasion, when the young child requested that his
Speaker 1: father hire his favorite South Korean comedian. The regimes seriously
Speaker 1: considered abducting the funny man, but this is the hassle. Instead,
Speaker 1: Kim Jong Il sand scouts to find a look alike.
Speaker 1: They returned with a farmer who they trained to do
Speaker 1: stand up comedy. But Kim Jong Ill knew that his
Speaker 1: firstborn son was still lonely. A palace of endless toys
Speaker 1: and cars and jewels was not the same as having
Speaker 1: a mother or a friend his own age. So when
Speaker 1: Kim Jong Nam was eight, his father brought a little
Speaker 1: girl home to be his friend. It was his thirteen
Speaker 1: year old cousin, Namok. The two hit it off immediately.
Speaker 1: Kim Jong Nam and Nam were very very close growing.
Speaker 1: They were like brother and sister that were each other's
Speaker 1: only friends. Together, the duo would binge movies and shoot
Speaker 1: pelicans and potter between the palace walls on golf carts.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they convinced the palace show first to drive them
Speaker 1: around the streets of Kong Young. They were never allowed
Speaker 1: out of the vehicle. The girl would become his playmate
Speaker 1: and his closest confidant. He basically kind of gave up
Speaker 1: her whole life to be his friend, to be his sidekicks.
Speaker 1: His father also invited Kim jong Nam's grandmother and aunt
Speaker 1: to move into residence Umber fifteen to provide a needed
Speaker 1: maternal presence. The women were like governesses. They schooled him
Speaker 1: and everything from Russian to mathematics. By the time he
Speaker 1: was nine, Kim jong Nam was growing into an artistic
Speaker 1: and curious young child, A sensitive yet optimistic boy who
Speaker 1: loved books and jokes and the latest technology, and his
Speaker 1: feelings of filial piety ran deep. The boy worshiped his father,
Speaker 1: as his playmate Enamok later recounted, he was totally submissive
Speaker 1: to his father, and I never criticized what Kim jongile
Speaker 1: decided for him. Kim Jongial poured his very deep love
Speaker 1: into his on in childhood, so I don't think the
Speaker 1: child felt lonely. His mother's absence was covered up by
Speaker 1: his father's presence, but it wouldn't last. As Kim jong
Speaker 1: Nam grew older, his father's love grew colder. He stopped
Speaker 1: talking the young boy into bed. He no longer dispatched
Speaker 1: teams to buy him every imaginable gift. He started to
Speaker 1: join the family in residence number fifteen for supper less
Speaker 1: and less often only appearing three times a week. The
Speaker 1: reason Kim jong Il had what we're called secret parties
Speaker 1: or secret banquets, and those became places where many decisions
Speaker 1: were made, whether it was about policy or personnel, and
Speaker 1: everybody was required to sing and everybody was required to
Speaker 1: have a lot to drink. One night, Kim jong Il
Speaker 1: invited a local art troop to one of these parties,
Speaker 1: the sude Ar Troupe, which is a prestigious performing arts
Speaker 1: group in North Korea, and he was immediately smitten by
Speaker 1: the group's star dancer. She's on the cover of record
Speaker 1: albums that they would put out and traveled around Japan.
Speaker 1: So Kim jong Il invited the dance troupe back again
Speaker 1: and again just to watch the same woman perform. After
Speaker 1: each performance, he invited her to sit beside him. Sometimes
Speaker 1: he'd even go to their rehearsals to watch her practice.
Speaker 1: Her name was Cool Yong He, and sometime around she
Speaker 1: began missing dance practice. Rumors swirled among the dancers that
Speaker 1: she was pregnant, and soon she was living in the
Speaker 1: Royal Palace with Kim Jong Il is the third or
Speaker 1: fourth wife of Kim Jong Ill and my wife. These
Speaker 1: people were never officially married. These are more like royal consorts.
Speaker 1: These are women that Kim jong Ill established households with.
Speaker 1: Like Kim jong Il's previous relationship, this one was also
Speaker 1: a little scandalous in North Korea's cast system. This new
Speaker 1: woman was the lowest of the low. Her father had
Speaker 1: worked for the Japanese Army, North Korea's sworn enemy. But
Speaker 1: none of this matter to Kim jong Ill. He loved
Speaker 1: her and she was carrying a baby, a boy, what
Speaker 1: would be his second son. So he gave her her
Speaker 1: own home, and Changill started an entirely new household, one
Speaker 1: that lived completely separated from Kim jong Nam's wing of
Speaker 1: the family. And with that, an unspoken feud flared between
Speaker 1: the two branches of Kim's one that would go on
Speaker 1: for decades to come. But for the young Kim jong Nam,
Speaker 1: it was his father's divided attention that took the biggest toll.
Speaker 1: He saw less of Kim Jong Il and grew closer
Speaker 1: with his aunts and uncles. He started feeling increasingly alienated
Speaker 1: from his father, so Kim jong Nam's minders made a decision.
Speaker 1: It was time to give the boy a new environment.
Speaker 1: He couldn't live as a secret anymore. He had to
Speaker 1: see the world. The family of Kim jong The family
Speaker 1: of Kim jong Nam convinced Kim Jong Ill that Kim
Speaker 1: jong Nam needs to get a proper education in a
Speaker 1: school setting. He can't do it in North Korea because
Speaker 1: you have to keep the leader standard secret. So they
Speaker 1: convinced Kim Jong Ill that Kim jong Nam should study abroad,
Speaker 1: and the first stop is Switzerland. This decision, however, would
Speaker 1: do nothing to improve Kim jong Nam's relation ship with
Speaker 1: his father. In fact, Cheng Nam would feel even more
Speaker 1: forgotten neglected. He was motherless, he had one childhood friend
Speaker 1: to his name, and now he was living thousands of
Speaker 1: miles away from home. And for the first time in
Speaker 1: his life, the firstborn heir to the Peck two dynasty
Speaker 1: began to feel something, something he had been taught to
Speaker 1: suppress all his life, resentment for his father. I can
Speaker 1: just paraphrase what he said, which was that when I
Speaker 1: left for switzerlandon my father replaced me with his new family,
Speaker 1: and that was pretty devastating. Little did Kim jong Nam, no,
Speaker 1: But that's exactly what his father's new mistress wanted because
Speaker 1: in she gave birth to another boy. His name was
Speaker 1: Kim Jong un. And even though these boys were still
Speaker 1: too young to even comprehend running a country, Koyong he
Speaker 1: knew that Kim Jong nam stood in the way of
Speaker 1: her children's path to the throne, and she would do
Speaker 1: anything to clear it. Next time on Big Brother, we
Speaker 1: dive deeper into how manipulative mothers drove two young boys
Speaker 1: to scramble for their father's affection, leading to a ruthless
Speaker 1: race to become North Korea's successor. Big Brother is a
Speaker 1: production of School of Humans and I Heart Radio and
Speaker 1: hosted by me Eden Lee Lucas. Riley is our writer,
Speaker 1: co director and associate producer. Amelia Brock is our senior producer,
Speaker 1: co director and editor. Executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr,
Speaker 1: Elci Crowley, and Jason English. Our fact checker is Aaron Blakemore.
Speaker 1: Music composed by Jason Todd Shannon and Tunewalders. Original score
Speaker 1: mixed by Vick Stafford. Our opening song is Adi Dang
Speaker 1: Fantasy arranged by Choice Hongwan As performed by the New
Speaker 1: York Philharmonic licensed from euro Arts Music International. Audio editing
Speaker 1: by Jesse nice Swanger, Sound design and mixed by Harper W. Harris.
Speaker 1: Audio correction by Josh Fisher. Voice acting by Mike Coscarelli,
Speaker 1: June you In and Sage Kim Gray. Special thanks to
Speaker 1: Ryan Murdoch and Will Pearson. Sound licensed from Critical Past.
Speaker 1: If you're enjoying the podcast, help us get the word
Speaker 1: out by leaving a rating in your favorite podcast app.
Speaker 1: Until next time, I'm even Lee School of Humans