Looking for Christmas gifts for the readers (and listeners) in your circle? “The Great Successor” checks all the boxes and it arrives with a Christmas-red book jacket:
[x] Page-turner! Couldn’t put it down.
[x] Absolutely fascinating leadership biography!
[x] Memorable and eye-opening stories! Unbelievable! Concerning.
How will the White House team relate to North Korea and Kim Jong Un in 2021 and beyond? Stay tuned, of course—but this 2019 bio by Anna Fifield (former Beijing bureau chief for the “Washington Post”) is off-the-chart captivating. Once you read her subtitle, “The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un,” you’re hooked. How’d you like “Brilliant Comrade” on your business card?
POP QUIZ! I’m thinkin’ the best way to lure you into the book is to surprise you and your classmates with a True or False Pop Quiz. (See below.) But first…you can cram for the exam with this helpful guide to the three main characters—Grandpa Kim, Father Kim, and Grandson Kim:
• KIM IL SUNG (1912-1994) founding Supreme Leader of North Korea at age 36—ruled from 1948 to 1994. Died in office at age 82.
• KIM JONG IL (1941-2011), named Supreme Leader at age 52 and ruled from 1994 to 2011. Died in office at age 70.
• KIM JONG UN (born 1984), named Supreme Leader at age 27 in 2011 (He will be 37 on Jan. 8, 2021.)
FACT OR FAKE? How Much Do You Know About North Korea and Kim Jong Un, “The Great Successor”?
___True or False? 1) YOU SNOOZE, YOU LOSE. North Korea’s equivalent of a defense minister disappeared in 2016 “and was reported to have been executed for insubordination and treason,” including “falling asleep while Kim Jong Un was speaking.”
___True or False? 2) TEN COMMANDMENTS. North Koreans are required to memorize the “Ten Principles on the Establishing of the Monolithic Ideology of the Party”—and “be able to recite them on demand.”
___True or False? 3) SELF-CRITICISM SESSIONS. “Every Saturday, and sometimes more often, citizens must also attend self-criticism sessions, where they are required to detail their own short-comings of the previous week and often offer up those of the people around them.” Per the author, the sessions can also be helpful when retaliating against an annoying neighbor!
___True or False? 4) DICTATOR-FOR-LIFE. The Kim family’s durability is stunning—compared to other dictatorships. During Kim Il Sung’s reign (1948-1994), the U.S. said hello and goodbye to nine presidents (Truman to Clinton). “Japan cycled through twenty-one prime ministers. Kim Il Sung outlived Mao Zedon by almost two decades and Joseph Stalin by four. North Korea has now existed for longer than the Soviet Union.”
___T or F. 5) CHRISTIAN ROOTS. Kim Il Sung, the grandfather, was born on April 15, 1912—the same day the Titanic sank. “At the time, Pyongyang was a center for Christianity, so much so that it was called the Jerusalem of the East. He was born into a Protestant family, and one of his grandfathers served as a minister.”
___T or F. 6) AMATEUR HOUR. On Sept. 9, 1948, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was founded and Kim Il Sung was installed as its leader. “No sooner had he been appointed than Kim began a personality cult so pervasive it would soon make Stalin look like an amateur.” Soon, statues of “the Great Leader” began to appear—“and history began to be rewritten.”
___T or F. 7) BAD TIMING. In 1991, Kim Jong Il was named Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army. “It was hardly an auspicious time to cement the succession. The Berlin Wall had just come down. Just two days after his promotion, the Soviet Union collapsed. The Communist Bloc that had supported the North Korean regime, both economically and ideologically, was no more.”
___T or F. 8) AND HE NEVER TOLD A LIE. “To bolster the case for hereditary succession in these challenging circumstances, the regime created a fantastical story about Kim Jong Il’s provenance that borrowed heavily from both Korean mythology and Christianity.” Example: “They said Kim Jong Il was born in a wooden cabin [not quite a manger!] and that a single bright star shone in the sky at his birth.” The author adds, “But, for good measure, they added a double rainbow spontaneously appearing over the mountain.”
___T or F. 9) SORRY. THAT’S TAKEN. To prepare for the succession to Kim Jong Un, the regime began calling Kim Jong Il’s son, “Beloved and Respected Comrade General.” Next, “the authorities reportedly ordered that no babies from then on could be called Jong Un, and any North Koreans who already had that name [a relatively common name]…had to change it.”
___T or F. 10) STICKS & STONES... Apparently, dictators work hard at branding. While the butt of many jokes outside his borders, Kim Jong Un enjoys many honorary titles today:
• Invincible and Triumphant General
• Guardian of Justice
• Best Incarnation of Love
• Decisive and Magnanimous Leader
• Guiding Ray of the Sun, the Sun of the Revolution, the Sun of Socialism, the Bright Sun of the Twenty-First Century, and the Sun of Mankind
Yet…in China, “he was quickly named ‘Kim Fatty the Third,’ despite the belated efforts of the Chinese censors to scrub the moniker from the internet.” For more Onion-like “true” stories (scaling mountains in dress shoes!), don’t miss Chapter 5, “A Third Kim at the Helm.” Oh, my.
___T or F. 11) LET THEM EAT CAKE. Anna Fifield interviewed a “money transfer merchant” who was unconvinced that the Great Successor could raise living standards. “When Kim Jong Un said he was going to make the country strong and prosperous, no one believed it. How could we be strong and prosperous if we didn’t even have toilet paper?”
___T or F. 12) DICTATOR DICTUM. Kim Jong Un “had to embody the dictum laid out five centuries earlier by the Italian politician Niccolo Machiavelli in his book The Prince: that it is better to be feared than loved.”
___T or F. 13) SPECIAL, SPECIAL. “Every home, every school, every hospital, every public building, and even every subway car must contain framed photos of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, which must be cleaned every day with a special cloth that is kept in a special box.”
___T or F. 14) BIG BROTHER’S BROADCAST. “Every household has a radio attached to the wall that can never be turned off and can never be tuned to a different station.”
___T or F. 15) WHAT? NO INTERNET? “There is no alternative point of view [from the Brilliant Comrade’s regular commentary and advice on everything from catfish farming to bean paste to missile programs]. And, for all but a handful of the elites who get Kim Jong Un’s explicit permission, there is no internet access. Cell phones are not connected to the outside world.”
___T or F. 16) WILL THIS BE ON THE TEST? When the Brilliant Comrade became leader, high schools added a new curriculum—81 hours of lessons on Kim Jong Un, in addition to the existing courses on his father, grandfather, and grandmother!
___T or F. 17) BRUTAL. There is no orthodox rule of law that “the outside world would recognize as a fair trial. There’s no defense attorney, no jury of one’s peers.” And “severe beatings and torture are commonplace, including pigeon torture, whereby prisoners’ hands are tied behind their back, and they’re hung from a wall, forcing out their chest. They’re made to stay that way for hours, often until they pass out or vomit blood.”
___T or F. 18) LOCATION. LOCATION. LOCATION. South Korea’s intelligence agency estimates that Kim Jong Un has at least 33 homes in North Korea. His main compound in northeast Pyongyang covers almost five square miles.
___T or F. 19) IT NEVER HAPPENED. While the official government salary remains at about $4 a month (taxi meters start at one dollar!), the creativity of many to earn money on the side is stunning. Not legal, but stunning. The author interviewed a “North Korean Fat Cat,” now living in Virginia. “Every North Korean breaks the law. Kim Jong Un breaks the law as well. Because everyone does it, the authorities just close their eyes,” he told her. The Great Successor keeps his supporters happy by keeping them rich. (Must-read: Chapter 8, “The Elites of Pyonghattan”)
TRUE OR FALSE? All of the above statements are TRUE and these are just a small sample of the unbelievable perspectives you’ll gain by reading the entire book.
So…from Kim Jong Un’s private schooling in Switzerland to his addiction to basketball and his bizarre relationship with former NBA star Dennis Rodman (Rodman was on Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice” show twice), to the execution of Kim Jong Un’s uncle (a high-ranking official), and the 2017 poisoning of his older half-brother at the Kuala Lumpur airport—what should one make of the Great Successor?
The author quotes Ian Robertson, a clinical psychologist and professor of neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin. He believes Kim Jong Un is not a madman, but a “reasonably psychologically stable individual”—but he is a “classic narcissist.” Robertson added, “Most people who don’t get scared off by their conscience or the stress of being a leader develop narcissism.” Fifield summarized Robertson’s thoughts: “Because it’s an acquired narcissism, it’s a personality distortion rather than a personality disorder.”
Think Lord Acton’s insights, she adds: “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Hence—nuclear ambitions (joining the H-bomb club in 2017), American hostages (including the tragedy of Otto Warmbier) and more.
Chapters 14 and 15 are prescient. One expert doesn’t believe that Los Angeles will be bombed by North Korea and explains why. (Whew!) “The Charm Offensive” is fascinating with commentary on the First Sister (“the Ivanka Trump of North Korea”) and why no traces of DNA are left when Kim Jong Un or his family stay at hotels outside North Korea. He even brings his own portable toilet.
So who’s the successor to the Great Successor—and can he keep this family gig going? The next leader won’t be a woman, say the South Korean experts. And according to Yale scholar Milan Svolik, who studied 316 dictators, “more than two-thirds were overthrown by their rivals.” Think how Nikita Khrushchev in 1964 and Robert Mugabe in 2017 both lost power. “Their one-time allies seized it from them.”
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Reviews with images
** Book arrived covered in greasy fingerprints! **
I can't wait to read the book after hearing the author on NPR. However, the book arrived covered in greasy fingerprints.
Top reviews from other countries
Aakash
Great book for anyone wanting to know more about North Korea and The Kims!
Reviewed in Australia on February 15, 2021