WEBVTT - A Secret Worth Killing For 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:13.960 On the border of North Korea and China, is a lake. 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:18.360 It's nestled within the caldera at the center of a 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:25.200 dormant volcano, surrounded by sixteen jagged mountain peaks. The cliffs 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:29.480 are dark and steep, poked with moss and caps of 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:35.080 shimmering ice and snow. They tumble into deep blue water, 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:42.479 glassy and still. This is Heaven Lake on Mount pet two, 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:49.000 the highest point in North Korea. For Koreans both North 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:55.040 and South, this is a special place. The special place. 0:00:56.160 --> 0:01:01.560 According to ancient folklore, this is where the Korean people originated. 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:06.880 More than four thousand years ago, the mythological god king 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:12.520 Tangun descended from heaven and was born right here. He'd 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:20.119 become the first ruler of Korea. Over centuries, empires rose 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:28.000 and fell, the Puyo Kingdom, the Koo Powers, the Chosun dynasty. 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:33.759 Ruling families came and went, but one thing bound them all. 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:39.000 They never stopped revering the mountain as their spiritual home. 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:45.119 Like Tangun before them, these families justified their power by 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:50.560 declaring themselves sons of Heaven, as descendants of Mount Pictwo 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:56.320 and the story of Tangun. It's not the only legend 0:01:56.360 --> 0:02:00.720 associated with this sacred place. In fact, there are two 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:04.600 other stories that every student in North Korea by age 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:10.440 five must know by heart. The first is the story 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:14.480 of a young Kim Io Song, a scrappy guerrilla fighter 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:19.200 who risked life and limb to fend off Japanese invaders, 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:22.640 waging fearless battle on the slopes of the Great Mountain. 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:28.359 The second is the story of his son, Kim jong Il, 0:02:28.800 --> 0:02:31.520 who they say was born by heaven lake in a 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:36.880 small wooden cabin. Upon his birth, a single bright star 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:42.760 appeared in the twilight, a double rainbow magically streaming across 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:49.399 the mountaintops, like Tangun and the pedigree of emperors before them. 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:53.480 Both Kim's would use these stories to claim a mandate 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:57.760 from heaven, a spiritual calling to become the father figures 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:03.200 of the Korean people, because coursing through their veins was 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:08.240 the stuff of legends, the fabled blood of Mount Peck two. 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:16.000 I guess you could say that Mount Peck two is 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:18.480 to North Korea what the bald Eagle is to the 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:23.560 United States. It's a national symbol, emblazoned on the country's emblem, 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:27.840 its name plastered on everything from power plants to torpedoes. 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:36.800 But that doesn't even do it justice. It's magical, mythical today, 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:40.680 the mountains lore, the notion that this place spawned a 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:44.680 pure blood line of leaders is the glue that holds 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:48.760 the Kim personality called together, and it's the reason Kim 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:54.760 jong Nam's assassination was so shocking, so galling, because according 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:58.880 to centuries of myth and tradition, Kim jong Nam's blood 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:05.560 was more than us royal, it was divine, and he 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:12.560 was first in line to the throne. I'm even lee 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:17.760 in this episode inside the myths and machinations that revealed 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:23.320 the Kim family to be not divine rulers but ruthless infighters, 0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:27.400 a family that competes not just for glory and power, 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:32.960 but also for survival. It's pretty obscene the way Kim 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:36.119 jong Nam was raised. They were like brother and sister. 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:39.360 They were each other's only friends. I can just paraphrase 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:42.080 what he said, which was, my father replaced me with 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:46.960 his new family, and that was pretty devastating. This is 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:55.159 big brother. The assassination of Kim jong Nam may have 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:59.239 happened in but the circumstances that led to his death 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:03.880 decades in the making, and it all started, as so 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:08.159 many epic tales do, with a love story and the 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:12.320 collision of two warring families vying for the same affection. 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:17.000 It was the nineteen sixties and Kim Jong il was 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:21.360 just a twentysomething making propaganda for his father's political party, 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:26.200 the Workers Party of Korea. And Kim Jong Il was 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:31.159 a master of his trade. The propaganda was just brilliant. 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:36.599 That's Bradley Martin, a newspaper journalist. I've worked for a Newsweek, 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:40.719 the Roll Street Journal, Bloomberg News, and the author of 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:43.880 the book Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader. 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:48.120 He's reported on the Kim dynasty for decades. One of 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:51.760 the greatest of the propagandists Roz Kim Jong Hill. He 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:54.800 was a super producer and he really knew what he 0:05:54.880 --> 0:06:04.360 was doing with propaganda. As a propagandist, Kim Jong Il 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:07.839 was the head of North Korea's motion picture division, making 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:12.960 films that enhanced the regime's messaging and bolstered his father's personality. 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:19.600 Cult To say Kim Jong Il enjoyed making movies is 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:29.040 an understatement. The man was obsessed with cinema, action, romance, horror, 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:34.560 you name it, Kim Jong Il devoured it. He was 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:38.520 a devoted fan of everything from James Bond to vend It. 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:42.520 Like Beckham, he reportedly owned more than thirty thousand movie 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:47.200 titles in his personal theater, including a substantial stash of 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:54.760 very illegal pornography. Chang I loved films so much that 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:58.120 in the nineteen seventies he abducted one of South Korea's 0:06:58.200 --> 0:07:03.680 most famous directors. A team of henchmen secretly crossed the border, 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:07.159 tailed the director, threw a bag over his head, and 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:10.000 transported him to a work camp in the North, where 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:14.040 he lived on a diet of rice and grass. Kim 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:16.920 forced the movie maker to direct films for the regime, 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:22.320 including a comically cheesy rip off of Godzilla called Pugati, 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:37.200 and this love of cinema would shape Kim Jong Il's 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:41.880 romantic life too. In the late nineteen sixties, Chang I 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:44.640 was walking through a film studio when he bumped into 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:50.840 an actress named tong headium The princeling was immediately star struck. 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:56.520 Tongam was North Korea's biggest movie star, A thirty one 0:07:56.560 --> 0:07:59.320 year old bombshell. She was born in the South but 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.680 had moved north as a child. As an actress, she 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:06.080 had multiple lead roles to her credit and even attended 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:10.920 international film festivals. For a movie buff like Kim jong il, 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:15.640 it was like meeting Marilyn Monroe in her prime. It 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:20.560 was love at first sight. Tongden was married with children, 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:24.480 but for a member of the pic two bloodline, that 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:29.120 was no obstacle. Jan Ille forced the actress to divorce 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:33.000 and sent her ex husband out of country to quote work. 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:38.480 The two never married, but they did start a relationship 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:45.160 and in the couple had a child, a baby boy. 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:50.360 Kim Jong il could hardly contain the news. In his book, 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:53.760 Bradley Martin writes that Kim was so excited by the 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:56.880 arrival of his son that he quote honked his car 0:08:56.880 --> 0:09:01.480 horn to awaken everyone in the hospital. But there was 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:06.679 one person he refused to tell, his father, the supreme leader, 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:12.280 Kim ils hung. North Korea was and remains a very 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:18.120 socially conservative society. Kim il sung preached conventional family values. 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:23.360 Extramarital affairs were illegal, divorce was frowned upon, and having 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:28.120 a child out of wedlock it was inadmissible. And Kim 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:33.959 Jong il, he had flirted with all three. He knew 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:37.200 his father would never accept his decision to pair off 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:43.040 with the actress, especially a divorcee born in South Korea. 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:48.000 But Kim jong il was a virtuoso of propaganda. He 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:53.360 had a talent for hiding inconvenient information, so he successfully 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:56.680 kept the relationship and the existence of his own son 0:09:57.240 --> 0:10:02.280 from his father for four years rs. But even the 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:09.000 greatest propagandists can stumble. The secret eventually leaked, and when 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:14.720 kimio sung learned about his son's love child, he was furious, 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:20.600 that is until he met the little boy. According to 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:24.120 one telling, when kimio sung saw his grandson for the 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:30.240 first time, his eyes flooded with tears. This, after all, 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:36.400 was his first male grandchild. Pet two blood was coursing 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:39.760 through his veins, and when he picked up the child 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:42.800 and held him in his arms, he felt like he 0:10:42.840 --> 0:10:47.440 was holding the future of the nation. So kimio Song 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:52.920 gave his grandson a name Kim chong nam in Korean, 0:10:53.679 --> 0:11:00.360 it means loyal man. Now with his father's blessing, Kim 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:04.480 jong il felt free to shower his newborn son with affection, 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:09.080 pampering and spoiling him. Kim jong il was a really 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:14.440 doting father That again is Anna Fifield, journalists and author 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:18.120 of The Great Successor. He was out there during the 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.400 day during his day job being a tyrant, but he 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:25.760 loved coming home to the palatial compound there and playing 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:30.920 with Kim jong Nam. The two seemed inseparable. Father and 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:34.800 son shared the same bed, a common practice in traditional 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:40.760 Korean society. For eight years. Each night, Kim jong Il 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:45.480 gently rocked and cradled his son to sleep. When Kim 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:49.040 Jong Nam was a toddler, his father began spoiling him 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:53.400 with every gift a child could dream of, and then some. 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:59.440 He had this massive playhouse filled with toys. He had 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:03.120 you know, lego brought in from Denmark and like top 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:08.439 of the range toys brought from everywhere. He had mangoes imported. 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:13.120 He had clothes brought from the UK. You know, anything 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:16.640 he could ever desire. And you know, well beyond his 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:20.920 wild imagination he had. He had a little a little 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:23.440 golf buggy that he could zoom around on his own 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:26.920 zoo with a real bear in it. Um He lived 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:31.280 this ridiculous, pampered life. Kim Jong Nam and his mother's 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:35.319 extended family lived in their own wild off compound in Pyongyang, 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:40.840 an opulent palace called Residents Number fifteen. They had a 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:48.560 hundred servants, five hundred bodyguards, and eight cooks. Anything the 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:53.360 child demanded was his. His father made sure of it. 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:58.200 According to Bradley Martin, Kim jong il assigned a special 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:02.080 unit of bureaucrats to travel the globe to purchase gifts 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:06.720 for his son's birthdays, buying him everything from video games 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:10.200 to diamond wrist watches. You could have anything. You want. 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:14.200 A revolver, here's a revolver. You know, you want an automobile. 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:18.040 Here's a here's a little automobile you can drive around. 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:22.800 You want bars of gold, you have some bars of gold. 0:13:23.520 --> 0:13:27.200 It's pretty obscene the way Kim jong Nam was raised. 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:30.320 But there was one thing that young Kim jong Nam 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:36.240 couldn't have, and that was friends. Because although Kim jong 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:39.000 Nam might not have been a dirty secret around his 0:13:39.080 --> 0:13:43.280 grandfather anymore, his existence was still shielded from the public, 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:47.720 as well as from most government officials. The princeling was 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:52.240 confined to his palace, forbidden to trek beyond its walls 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:56.920 to see how regular people lived. His playmates consisted of 0:13:57.040 --> 0:14:02.079 two adults, a painter and film technician who had been 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:07.800 appointed to be his official friends. For years, Kim Jong 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:11.440 Nam wouldn't know a single soul his own age. He 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:15.400 would have to make do with his father's love, plus 0:14:15.440 --> 0:14:20.960 the occasional bar of gold. Family life was strained elsewhere too. 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:24.400 Because of the deep love Kim Jong Ill felt for 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:28.920 his son, it didn't translate to the boy's mother. The 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:33.880 honeymoon phase was long over and their relationship had all 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:40.080 but collapsed. The former actress was deeply unhappy. She missed 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:43.920 the stage, the adrenaline fueled glow of a film set. 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:47.640 She wanted to play movie roles, not the role of 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:52.680 a subservient housekeeper, and despite living in the lap of luxury, 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:56.400 she was tired of being treated as a dirty secret. 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:00.560 Here again is the founder of North Curre. You watch 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:05.320 Michael Madden, whose audio will remind you was distorted, hence 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:09.520 the voiceover. Even though you live in these beautiful villas 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:13.520 with swimming pools and the best food and access to television, 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:18.640 you're essentially under a glorified house arrest, and Kim Jong 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:22.040 Ill didn't have patience for any of the woman's feelings. 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:30.120 His love for her faded years earlier. Kim had once 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:35.560 called her his yell ball or wife, but now he 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:39.880 had downgraded her title to quote the mother of my son. 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:45.680 The relationship grew hostile, and as Kim jong Il became 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:51.040 more and more distant, her mental health began to spiral in. 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:53.680 Living in the house of Kim Jong Ill was a 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:57.760 very stressful experience. Kim Jong Ill was a fairly moody guy, 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:00.720 and he was the most powerful man in the country, 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:04.560 so living around him was basically an exercise and walking 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:09.080 on eggshells. And then Kim jong Il decided he had 0:16:09.160 --> 0:16:12.920 had enough. It was time to kick the woman out 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:17.520 of his life for good. But their son, he decided, 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:25.200 would stay with him. Hongheading panicked at the news, she 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:28.600 scooped Kim jong Nam into her arms and sprinted for 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:32.880 the palace doors, Desperate to make an escape, She didn't 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:37.520 get far before the guards stopped her. Shortly after, she 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:44.640 was sent to Moscow for quote medical treatment. Aside from 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:48.400 a few failed attempts to return home, she'd spend the 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:54.080 remainder of her life in Russia mired and depression. Meanwhile, 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:57.840 at Residence Number fifteen, a young Kim Jong Nam went 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:01.800 back to being treated as a state's secret. He was 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:09.399 friendless and now motherless. And soon he would begin to 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:34.040 feel fatherless too. We want to step back for a 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:38.560 moment and take a detour. Too many of us, North 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:44.360 Korea can seem well, a little bit crazy. It's this small, 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:48.920 bellicost country with nuclear weapons, led by a man with 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:55.200 funny hair and comically bad propaganda. The leaders seem psychotic. 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:59.040 They run googlogs. But at the same time, we'll hack 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:03.119 a company sir verse because of a Seth Rogan film. 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:07.919 The state media announces menacing missile launches while almost in 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:12.320 the same breath claiming that they just discovered a unicorn 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:16.160 layer in a cave. It can be hard to take 0:18:16.200 --> 0:18:21.240 North Korea seriously, but over the course of reporting this podcast, 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:25.240 almost every expert we spoke to kept making the same 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:30.639 point that North Korea is, in fact not irrational and 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:35.399 it's definitely not unpredictable. A lot of the mainstream media's 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:39.280 obsession with North Korea now borders on caricatures and the eccentric, 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:44.960 But really, North Korea is a deeply serious and rational country. 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:47.600 When you look at it as a sovereign country with 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:50.800 its own strategic interest, a lot of the moves that 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:54.479 it makes make a lot of sense. North Korea is 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:59.240 not only not crazy, but very careful methodical in the 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:04.280 way North Korea just tries to paint its adversaries into 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:09.240 a corner. The point is to understand the death of 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:13.000 Kim Jong Nam, you need to understand what drives North 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:20.639 Korea and most of us, well, we don't understand, but 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:24.320 it's possible to make sense of it. Take for instance, 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:29.000 the Kim personality cult. It's not the only country with 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:32.919 a personality cult, but it is one of the most effective. 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:38.879 And the reason has a lot to do with Confucianism. 0:19:39.040 --> 0:19:44.160 Confucianism is deeply embedded in North Korean society. That's Dr 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:48.960 Sung Unually, a professor at Tufts University. He's an expert 0:19:48.960 --> 0:19:53.960 on North Korea US relations as well as history. Confucianism 0:19:53.960 --> 0:20:00.000 has been the most prominent ideology in Korean history since 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:06.879 about the year fourteen. Confucius never stepped foot on the 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:12.000 Korean peninsula, but his life's work saturates the region's value 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:18.240 system both North and South. Take North Korea's propaganda, for example, 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:20.920 the films cooked up by Kim Jong il in the 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:27.080 nineteen sixties painted the Supreme leader as universally benevolent, even omniscient. 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:32.520 The leader's talents no no bounds. Kim Jong Ill, after all, 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:37.639 supposedly wrote six operas and could hit eighteen holes in one. 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:42.560 It's ridiculous, but the strategy makes some sense in the 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:49.600 context of Confucianism. Confucius experienced deep instability during his lifetime, 0:20:50.200 --> 0:20:54.080 and he dreamed of bringing peace to the bloodshed around him. 0:20:54.119 --> 0:20:58.080 He preached strategies that he believed could coax order from 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:05.960 the chaos. In solution was virtue. In Confucian society, a 0:21:06.119 --> 0:21:11.240 leader rules not by force, but by virtue, and the 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:16.640 Kim family knows this, so they push a narrative, one 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:21.879 that constantly reminds the populace over and over and over, 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:27.240 how dear, how great, how benevolent, how kind, and how 0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:32.919 caring their leader is. This desire to appear virtuous, mixed 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:36.399 with the peck two myth of divine rule, creates a 0:21:36.520 --> 0:21:42.479 noxious ideology that basically treats the Kims as God's and 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:45.960 if they're to be worshiped like God's, then they must 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:51.600 have the virtues and the abilities of God's. As a result, 0:21:52.160 --> 0:21:57.240 North Korea has outstalinized Stalin. North Korea's cult of personality 0:21:57.800 --> 0:22:01.720 puts the cult of Chairman mob in China or Stalin 0:22:01.840 --> 0:22:05.440 in the former Soviet Union to shame. And that's why 0:22:05.520 --> 0:22:08.920 Kim Jong il had to keep his private life a secret. 0:22:09.600 --> 0:22:12.879 If news ever spread to the common people about his 0:22:12.960 --> 0:22:17.600 illicit relationship with an actress or his love child, it 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:22.840 could soil this carefully calibrated image. It could be especially 0:22:22.920 --> 0:22:25.480 dangerous if this knowledge ever fell into the hands of 0:22:25.480 --> 0:22:29.480 a competitor or some military figure who wanted to stage 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:33.280 a coup. This information could be used against him to 0:22:33.480 --> 0:22:39.880 puncture that godlike persona. Because the other element of Confucianism 0:22:40.040 --> 0:22:46.480 revolves around hierarchy, what are the common characteristics of Confucianism? 0:22:46.520 --> 0:22:53.760 Respectful communal values, respect for society, respectful authority, respect for 0:22:53.840 --> 0:22:58.359 the nation, putting the family about the individual, the society 0:22:58.520 --> 0:23:03.680 above the family, and the state above all. Confucius believed 0:23:03.720 --> 0:23:08.720 in the society built upon strong hierarchies with strict obedience 0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:15.439 to authorities. This, he said, could foster stability, and the 0:23:15.520 --> 0:23:20.440 system has a proven track record. According to Dr Lee, 0:23:20.640 --> 0:23:25.800 Korea's ancient dynasties flourished because of this dogmatic loyalty to 0:23:25.920 --> 0:23:30.040 superiors and the willingness to put society before the self. 0:23:30.720 --> 0:23:35.040 Confucian societies are more cohesive to when it comes to 0:23:35.160 --> 0:23:40.439 national calamities, war, the pandemic. People are more prone to 0:23:41.000 --> 0:23:46.439 sacrificing their individual privacy and their individual rights for the 0:23:46.480 --> 0:23:49.679 sake of the greater good of society. This respect for 0:23:49.840 --> 0:23:53.679 hierarchy is the reason young people both North and South 0:23:54.040 --> 0:23:58.520 are expected to show constant obedience to their parents, to teachers, 0:23:59.000 --> 0:24:02.960 and the government offici shoals. There are three bonds so 0:24:03.080 --> 0:24:09.920 cold in Confucianism. First the bureaucrat, the official submits himself 0:24:09.960 --> 0:24:14.399 to the king, and then the gross gender inequality women, 0:24:15.000 --> 0:24:19.080 the wife submits herself to the husband and later even 0:24:19.119 --> 0:24:22.640 to her own son. And then filial piety the son 0:24:23.000 --> 0:24:28.320 submits to the father. But it's filial piety, submission and 0:24:28.400 --> 0:24:32.520 loyalty to your father's reputation that really drives the culture. 0:24:33.480 --> 0:24:37.560 And in North Korea everybody has the same symbolic father. 0:24:38.359 --> 0:24:42.800 The man with peck two blood Kim ils Hung. This 0:24:42.960 --> 0:24:47.280 is no mistake, this is a brilliant strategy. The Kims 0:24:47.280 --> 0:24:52.320 have used propaganda to hijack traditional Confucian values and seize 0:24:52.359 --> 0:24:55.359 upon the national myth of the Peck two bloodline to 0:24:55.480 --> 0:24:59.040 serve their own interests and to feed their own power. 0:24:59.520 --> 0:25:02.080 It was a way for Kim Ala Song to essentially 0:25:02.119 --> 0:25:04.840 guarantee that he was going to be front and center 0:25:05.280 --> 0:25:09.040 of the North Korean system. That you may remember is Dr. 0:25:09.119 --> 0:25:14.199 Benjamin Young, a historian at Virginia Commonwealth University. There was 0:25:14.240 --> 0:25:18.120 actually a slogan in uh North Koreator in the Cold 0:25:18.119 --> 0:25:21.919 War era that literally said koreas Kimbelsung. Kimmel Sung is Korea. 0:25:22.520 --> 0:25:26.399 The Kim family personality called It is ubiquitous within North Korea, 0:25:26.520 --> 0:25:31.000 from slogans and posters to school children learning poems about 0:25:31.000 --> 0:25:34.400 the greatness of Kimmel Song. I really can't escape it. 0:25:34.400 --> 0:25:38.040 It is central to the North Korean way of life, 0:25:38.320 --> 0:25:42.240 and there is nothing to rival or challenge that messaging. 0:25:43.040 --> 0:25:47.760 In fact, the government is the only source of information. 0:25:48.800 --> 0:25:53.280 This persistent burrage of propaganda has a way of bending 0:25:53.680 --> 0:25:58.639 and breaking people's minds into submission. So the people of 0:25:58.640 --> 0:26:04.720 North Korea believe these stories, whether through real devotion or 0:26:04.880 --> 0:26:09.000 fear of what might happen if they don't. It helps 0:26:09.040 --> 0:26:17.119 breed political loyalty and simultaneously quashes any grassroots opposition. And 0:26:17.280 --> 0:26:21.480 total fidelity to the image of one man, one family 0:26:22.240 --> 0:26:27.520 has the power to turn normal people into monsters. Look 0:26:27.720 --> 0:26:35.800 no further than Kim Chang Ill. In the nine seventies, 0:26:36.240 --> 0:26:39.720 when Kim jong Nam was just a little boy, his 0:26:39.880 --> 0:26:44.840 father was preparing to become the nation's next ruler. He 0:26:45.000 --> 0:26:47.960 was the chosen son of heaven, a pick to air, 0:26:48.880 --> 0:26:53.440 and he had an image to maintain, a godlike image, 0:26:54.640 --> 0:26:57.600 and that's probably why he sent the mother of his 0:26:57.720 --> 0:27:02.679 firstborn son to Moscow. If she stayed in North Korea, 0:27:03.320 --> 0:27:07.399 it was guaranteed that gossip about their relationship would reach 0:27:07.440 --> 0:27:12.520 the public. So he exiled her, banishing her to a 0:27:12.600 --> 0:27:18.280 foreign mental facility, and in the process, his cruelty affected 0:27:18.320 --> 0:27:22.200 his son. He deprived Kim jong Nam of a mother. 0:27:23.520 --> 0:27:27.440 In fact, Kim jong Il would go to extreme lengths 0:27:27.440 --> 0:27:30.320 to ensure that the boy and his mother would remain 0:27:30.440 --> 0:27:34.879 a state secret. We know this because at the time, 0:27:35.400 --> 0:27:38.879 a group of young North Korean students were living in Moscow. 0:27:40.040 --> 0:27:42.679 One day, a student somehow learned about Kim jong il's 0:27:42.720 --> 0:27:48.680 mentally distressed mistress. Words spread that she lived nearby, somewhere 0:27:48.720 --> 0:27:52.640 in the Soviet Union. The gossip spread all the way 0:27:52.680 --> 0:27:57.720 back to Kiang Yang, and Kim jong Il was horrified. 0:27:59.200 --> 0:28:02.240 In an effort to shut down the rumor mill, he 0:28:02.359 --> 0:28:07.120 sent a security team to Russia. Kim's communist goons arrived 0:28:07.119 --> 0:28:12.760 in Moscow, rounded up all the university students and interrogated them. 0:28:12.800 --> 0:28:17.000 Anybody who acknowledged knowing anything about the ex mistress or 0:28:17.119 --> 0:28:24.920 her whereabouts or her child was immediately executed. Turns out, 0:28:26.000 --> 0:28:50.040 Kim jong Nam was a secret worth killing for. For 0:28:50.120 --> 0:28:53.960 most of his childhood, Kim jong Nam was functionally locked 0:28:54.040 --> 0:28:58.160 in a palace, cut off from the outside world. The 0:28:58.200 --> 0:29:03.040 boy passed his time and activity by reading books, drawing pictures, 0:29:03.640 --> 0:29:10.840 and naturally, watching movies, and his father continued to spoil him. 0:29:10.960 --> 0:29:13.520 One time, when the little prince had a toothache, Kim 0:29:13.600 --> 0:29:16.440 Jong ille convinced him to go to the dentist by 0:29:16.640 --> 0:29:21.120 gifting him a Cadillac. When he turned eight, his father 0:29:21.240 --> 0:29:24.880 threw him a birthday party, where instead of toys, he 0:29:24.960 --> 0:29:29.240 was given a military uniform and the rank of martial. 0:29:30.120 --> 0:29:33.560 In a nod to his future rank, palace workers began 0:29:33.640 --> 0:29:38.600 referring to the boy as little Comrade General. Later that night, 0:29:38.840 --> 0:29:43.440 a fireworks display spelled out the words Happy birthday, Comrade 0:29:43.520 --> 0:29:48.560 General in the sky. Nothing was too much to ask for. 0:29:49.440 --> 0:29:52.000 On one occasion, when the young child requested that his 0:29:52.080 --> 0:29:56.720 father hire his favorite South Korean comedian. The regimes seriously 0:29:56.760 --> 0:30:01.720 considered abducting the funny man, but this is the hassle. Instead, 0:30:02.000 --> 0:30:04.200 Kim Jong Il sand scouts to find a look alike. 0:30:04.840 --> 0:30:08.200 They returned with a farmer who they trained to do 0:30:08.440 --> 0:30:12.080 stand up comedy. But Kim Jong Ill knew that his 0:30:12.200 --> 0:30:16.920 firstborn son was still lonely. A palace of endless toys 0:30:17.000 --> 0:30:20.080 and cars and jewels was not the same as having 0:30:20.120 --> 0:30:24.000 a mother or a friend his own age. So when 0:30:24.080 --> 0:30:27.200 Kim Jong Nam was eight, his father brought a little 0:30:27.280 --> 0:30:30.440 girl home to be his friend. It was his thirteen 0:30:30.520 --> 0:30:36.360 year old cousin, Namok. The two hit it off immediately. 0:30:37.000 --> 0:30:40.240 Kim Jong Nam and Nam were very very close growing. 0:30:40.480 --> 0:30:42.760 They were like brother and sister that were each other's 0:30:42.840 --> 0:30:46.880 only friends. Together, the duo would binge movies and shoot 0:30:46.960 --> 0:30:50.320 pelicans and potter between the palace walls on golf carts. 0:30:51.000 --> 0:30:53.640 Sometimes they convinced the palace show first to drive them 0:30:53.680 --> 0:30:56.280 around the streets of Kong Young. They were never allowed 0:30:56.320 --> 0:30:59.920 out of the vehicle. The girl would become his playmate 0:31:00.400 --> 0:31:05.600 and his closest confidant. He basically kind of gave up 0:31:05.600 --> 0:31:09.040 her whole life to be his friend, to be his sidekicks. 0:31:09.560 --> 0:31:13.160 His father also invited Kim jong Nam's grandmother and aunt 0:31:13.240 --> 0:31:17.160 to move into residence Umber fifteen to provide a needed 0:31:17.320 --> 0:31:22.800 maternal presence. The women were like governesses. They schooled him 0:31:22.840 --> 0:31:27.840 and everything from Russian to mathematics. By the time he 0:31:27.960 --> 0:31:31.280 was nine, Kim jong Nam was growing into an artistic 0:31:31.400 --> 0:31:36.120 and curious young child, A sensitive yet optimistic boy who 0:31:36.120 --> 0:31:40.520 loved books and jokes and the latest technology, and his 0:31:40.640 --> 0:31:45.160 feelings of filial piety ran deep. The boy worshiped his father, 0:31:46.360 --> 0:31:50.920 as his playmate Enamok later recounted, he was totally submissive 0:31:51.000 --> 0:31:54.320 to his father, and I never criticized what Kim jongile 0:31:54.360 --> 0:31:59.440 decided for him. Kim Jongial poured his very deep love 0:31:59.520 --> 0:32:03.040 into his on in childhood, so I don't think the 0:32:03.120 --> 0:32:07.040 child felt lonely. His mother's absence was covered up by 0:32:07.080 --> 0:32:12.280 his father's presence, but it wouldn't last. As Kim jong 0:32:12.360 --> 0:32:19.400 Nam grew older, his father's love grew colder. He stopped 0:32:19.400 --> 0:32:23.600 talking the young boy into bed. He no longer dispatched 0:32:23.640 --> 0:32:28.200 teams to buy him every imaginable gift. He started to 0:32:28.280 --> 0:32:31.440 join the family in residence number fifteen for supper less 0:32:31.720 --> 0:32:37.160 and less often only appearing three times a week. The 0:32:37.240 --> 0:32:41.720 reason Kim jong Il had what we're called secret parties 0:32:41.960 --> 0:32:45.960 or secret banquets, and those became places where many decisions 0:32:45.960 --> 0:32:49.440