Jonathan Cheng’s new book Korean Messiah is a deeply researched and original study of the forces shaping the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Cheng, the Wall Street Journal’s China bureau chief, spoke to us from Beijing. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. —Tom Orlik, Bloomberg Economics
Marxism and Maoism seem like the obvious influences on North Korea. You have found something else?
Yes, Christianity. Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s state founder, was born in a devout Presbyterian family on the outskirts of Pyongyang, a city so Christianized it was known as the “Jerusalem of the East.” His grandparents and parents were among the first, and most fervent, converts to Christianity in Korea, and Kim was steeped in the Bible from his infancy.
How does the influence of Christianity persist in North Korea today?
Ask the tens of thousands of people who have fled North Korea, many with the help of South Korean missionaries operating in China. Encountering Christianity for the first time, these North Koreans remark on how striking the similarities are between the Bible and what they grew up learning. Many quip that you can simply switch the names Jesus and Kim Il Sung.
Did writing the book make you look at American Christianity in a different way?
It did. It was remarkable to see how the efforts of idealistic young American missionaries took root in Korea — to a degree unseen in China, India, or Japan — and then to see those teachings take on a life of their own, refracted through Kim Il Sung’s rise. It made me appreciate the dynamism of a teaching that could win such a fervent following — but that could also be molded and ultimately harnessed to such ends.
How do you think Pyongyang is viewing events in Tehran?
If there was ever any doubt in Pyongyang about the wisdom of pursuing nuclear weapons — and I don’t think there was — the Iran war has settled that. The US’s actions have been aimed at denying Tehran a nuclear arsenal; in North Korea, that ship has sailed. The Kim dynasty in Pyongyang is not going anywhere anytime soon, and we need to understand it for what it is. My argument, embedded in the historical narrative, is that North Korea is, at heart, a religious society — one that is nuclear-armed.