The Cleanest Race - B. R. Myers [44]
Kim Jong Il does not appear in the accompanying footage in person, but only through the banner of the Supreme Commander—an ornate five-pointed star on a red background—which now features as often in the visual arts as the flag of the republic itself. Has the Leader grown too visibly close to death himself for his physical appearance to move others to die for him? Perhaps, but this is not as big a problem as one might think. It cannot be stressed often enough that like his father, Kim Jong Il serves as the living symbol of the homeland; in acclaiming his perfect Koreanness, the masses acclaim themselves. Not for nothing does the suicidal anthem revel in images of soldiers goose-stepping in unison, and enormous crowds in torch-lit processions. For the average man these are far more seductive images than even the most impressive face could be; through their collective adulation of the Great Mother the masses regain what the psychoanalyst Otto Fenichel once called the “oceanic feeling” of the omnipotent’s parent’s love.33
A wall poster, photographed by a Taiwanese tourist in September 2009, congratulates citizens on being “blessed” with “the young General Kim Jong Ŭn.” Below the legend is the panegyric “Stride.”
The need to play up the hardship of the Dear Leader’s life has so far prevented the official media from acknowledging any of his wives, let alone showing a family portrait comparable to the ones in which Kim Jong Il appeared as a small boy. This may explain the uncharacteristic subtlety and coy vagueness of the current campaign to glorify Kim Jong Ŭn, the second son of Kim Jong Il’s third wife, who is evidently the next in line for the succession. From what we can gather from outside the country, this campaign is still in an early stage, consisting of little more than regular performances, singalongs and textual displays of a panegyric entitled Palgŏrŭm or “Stride.” A wall poster photographed in September 2009 bears the lyrics of the song under a legend congratulating the masses on being blessed not just with the General, but with “the young General Kim Jong Ŭn” as well. The latter, whose title is written with a different Korean word for general (taejang) than the one applied to his father (changgun), is described as carrying on both the “bloodline of Man’gyŏngdae,” i.e. of Kim Il Sung’s birthplace, and “the bloodline of Mount Paektu,” i.e. the birthplace of Kim Jong Il. This roundabout way of indicating his parentage seems to reflect the regime’s sense of awkwardness in celebrating someone whose very existence was kept secret for so long. The song itself, with its puerile onomatopoeic refrain, adds nothing to our knowledge of the young man. An excerpt:
Tramp, tramp, tramp
The footsteps of our General Kim
Spreading the spirit of February
Tramp, tramp, tramping onwards
.…
Bringing us closer to a brilliant future
The lyric’s references to February may be allusions to Kim Jong Il’s birth-month, but may also refer to exploits of the “young General” himself. There is no point speculating further about a nascent personality cult which will likely have emerged into much sharper relief by the time this book is published. But the most important fact of the cult is already clear enough from its martial imagery: Although the transition to a successor presents a unique opportunity to retire the military-first policy without a loss of face, the regime does not plan to avail itself of it. The next leader’s image will be more in the mold of Kim Jong Il than Kim Il Sung.
CHAPTER FIVE
FOREIGNERS
North Korea is often characterized as “solipsistic,” but racial pride always requires constant awareness of an inferior other. To the North Koreans the other is not just America, as so many foreigners believe,