By Majid Maqbool<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jonathan Cheng, the Wall Street Journal\u2019s China bureau chief and former Korea bureau chief, graduated from Princeton University with a history degree and rose through WSJ\u2019s ranks from Hong Kong intern to leading coverage of the Korean Peninsula. In between, he visited North Korea twice, in 2013 and 2017. His forthcoming book, Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea\u2019s Personality Cult<\/em> (Knopf, 2026), named \u201cForeign Policy<\/em>\u2019s Most Anticipated Book,\u201d charts North Korea\u2019s enigmatic history through the ruse of the Kim dynasty and its surprising roots in post\u2013Civil War American Christian fervor. The book reveals Pyongyang\u2019s past as the \u201cJerusalem of the East\u201d and Kim Il Sung\u2019s devout Christian parents as progenitors of a Christlike personality cult more religious than Stalin\u2019s or Mao\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In an interview for Asia Sentinel, Cheng, whose reporting and multilingual expertise have explained for years Asia\u2019s most opaque regimes, discusses his over-a-decade-long research journey into North Korea\u2019s myths, drawing from travels, archives, and on-the-ground visits, challenging global myths about the Hermit Kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cheng sees no contradiction in Kim Il Sung\u2019s Christian upbringing and his regime\u2019s harsh suppression of the faith, while arguing that Kim, raised by devoted Christian parents, recognized religion\u2019s power as both a threat and a control mechanism. The author also shares some book recommendations that provide deeper insights into the dynastic idolatry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Edited excerpts:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In Korean Messiah, you detail how hagiographical accounts elevate North Korea\u2019s \u2018forever president\u2019 Kim Il Sung to near-divine status. What primary textual sources and often-overlooked books were most useful in researching the origins of this personality cult?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In trying to pierce the veil of hagiography, it\u2019s perhaps ironic that one of my most important sources was Kim Il Sung\u2019s own memoir, published by North Korea in eight volumes starting in 1992. Most scholars will, correctly, dismiss the memoirs as fiction\u2014but that doesn\u2019t mean they aren\u2019t of value. I\u2019d venture to say that, while most of volumes two through eight are indeed fictionalized to the point of questionable value, the first volume is quite different: It covers the first eighteen years of his life, and it goes into great detail about his Christian upbringing\u2014details that could only have come from Kim himself. And he offers us these incredible anecdotes where you can almost see the lightbulb going on in his head about the power of faith and the merits of play-acting as a messianic figure\u2014letting people believe the myths around you\u2014that he parlayed to such great effect during his half-century in power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kim Il Sung\u2019s parents were devoted Christians, yet he founded the world\u2019s harshest persecutor of the faith. From your WSJ reporting and North Korea travels, what fresh insights explain this striking family contradiction of Christian roots vs. anti-Christian persecution?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t see a contradiction between his Christian roots and his persecution of Christians. Kim Il Sung grew up steeped in the faith and he appreciated its power\u2014both as a threat to his rule and as an instrument of control, if only he could harness it. The most striking contradiction I see, if any, is how he tried to reconcile himself to the faith toward the end of his life. As he grew nostalgic, I believe he tried, however clumsily, to atone for what he had done. Readers may disagree with my interpretation, but I came away with the sense that, on some level, he grasped the horrors of what he had done\u2014not that that absolves him of what he created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In <\/strong>Korean Messiah<\/strong><\/em>, you uncover Kim Il Sung\u2019s Christian family roots and their influence on the state\u2019s idolatrous personality cult which seems to be largely overlooked in prior scholarship. Why has there been so little scholarship exploring how this background shaped the regime he led for nearly half a century, and how does your book fill that gap?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t want to suggest that I\u2019m the first to draw a line between Kim Il Sung\u2019s Christian upbringing and the personality cult that he built. But I\u2019m not sure anyone has gone quite as deep in exploring this connection. Why? One explanation I\u2019ve heard is that in South Korea and among the Korean diaspora, where there is no shortage of scholars, many Christians with family roots in northern Korea, Kim Il Sung\u2019s Christian upbringing is an uncomfortable reality. It complicates the Cold War-era understanding of Kim Il Sung as the persecutor of Christianity. That\u2019s more of a blind spot on Korea\u2019s political right. On the political left, the idea that religiosity, and American missionary teachings in particular, are so deeply woven into this nominally atheistic, anti-imperialistic state is difficult to swallow. So perhaps it was easier for someone like me to pursue this\u2014I\u2019m not of Korean heritage, and while I was raised in a church environment very much like Kim Il Sung, I\u2019m able to look at it from a remove.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You note your years of struggling to master the Korean language. How did this linguistic challenge impact your research for Korean Messiah, particularly when navigating North Korean archives, conducting interviews, or accessing primary sources?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Language was a challenge in general. The primary sources for this topic are in Korean, Japanese, Russian, and Chinese, and very few people can dig into all these sources without some assistance. Helpfully, the North Koreans translated so much of their publications into English. But really, the secret of tackling a project like this is to assemble a team of research assistants. I worked with many over the twelve years I researched this book, and I couldn\u2019t have done it without them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You visited North Korea twice\u2014in 2013 and 2017\u2014as WSJ Korea bureau chief. What were some of your on-the-ground observations and findings from those trips that contradict the world\u2019s perceptions of daily life in what you describe as the world\u2019s most isolated and least understood country?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t know that these contradict global perceptions of the country, but I\u2019d point to two broad takeaways: Firstly, North Korea is a country full of real people who had as little choice about where they were born as you or I did. Secondly, I had to see it to believe that there really is a country like this. Before you go, you see the photographs and videos, but being there and seeing it all in real life\u2014Kim on the walls, Kim on the lapel badges, Kim on the street corners, Kim on the front page, Kim on everyone\u2019s tongue\u2026You have to be there to grasp its magnitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Did your visits to North Korea challenge or complement your archival research in Korean Messiah, particularly with regard to Christian influences and personality cult myths surrounding the Kim dynasty?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n By my second trip, I was already deep into researching the book. So, when our hosts asked what we wanted to see, I requested a church worship service\u2014and to my surprise, they took us to Pyongyang\u2019s two Protestant churches on Sunday morning. The one thing that stuck with me was the ubiquitous Kim portraits and lapel badges were nowhere to be seen. When I asked, I was told that those attending church were exempt\u2014as if to suggest that Kim Il Sung recognized that, in this sacred space, there was only room for one deity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In researching Korean Messiah, what were some previously not accessed letters, diaries, or archival materials that offered new insights or reshaped your view on the Kim family\u2019s Christian ties and how they fuelled the regime\u2019s religious-style personality cult?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ll give one example: North Korea published a book-length biography of Kim Il Sung\u2019s distant uncle, Rev. Kang Yang-uk. Rev. Kang is an almost entirely overlooked figure in North Korean history. He was Kim Il Sung\u2019s elementary school teacher and was preaching as a popular revivalist pastor when Kim Il Sung returned to Pyongyang in 1945. Kim elevated Rev. Kang to one of the most senior positions in North Korea\u2019s government, where he remained until his death in the 1980s. Rev. Kang was effectively charged with bringing the church to heel, and he did it with ruthlessness. Very few people are aware that this hagiographical account of Rev. Kang even exists, but it proved invaluable. Relatedly, it\u2019s remarkable to see Rev. Kang, appearing in the pages of North Korea\u2019s official party newspaper, quoting from the Book of Isaiah to hail Kim Il Sung as the Korean Messiah. There were many such revelations over the twelve years I researched this book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For readers of Korean Messiah, if you have to recommend three or four more books on Korean dynastic history, cult-making figures, and missionary influences, which books would you recommend that can also complement your account, and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m glad you asked. Firstly, my uncontroversial suggestion for anyone unfamiliar with North Korea is to start with Barbara Demick\u2019s stunning Nothing to Envy<\/em> (2009). It\u2019s primarily about the famine of the 1990s but uses that as an entry point to talk more broadly about the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019d add two works by Richard E. Kim, who was the grandson of a pastor and the son of two devout Christians. He was born in 1932 and lived through much of this history. His Lost Names: Scenes from a Korean Boyhood<\/em> (1970) is what I might call \u201cautobiographical fiction.\u201d It\u2019s incredibly evocative of the Japanese colonial period and captures the feelings of nationalism and shame that animated Kim Il Sung.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Richard Kim\u2019s The Martyred<\/em> (1964) is a novel set in Korean War-era Pyongyang. It\u2019s a splendid read that lays out the moral stakes of faith, nationalism, guilt, and all the big themes that sit at the heart of my book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And finally, for something beyond Korea, I\u2019d add A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Jonestown<\/em>, by Julia Scheeres. Jim Jones actually did have some Korean connections, which I mention in my book\u2014he adopted several Korean children, praised Kim Il Sung over the loudspeakers in Guyana, sent his team to meet with North Korean officials, and even considered relocating Jonestown to Pyongyang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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