[USFK Forums] Japanese documentary reveals untold history of N.Korea [UPI]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Tuesday, April 4, 2006

Japanese documentary reveals untold history of N.Korea

By Hiroshi Yamazaki
United Press International
Published April 3, 2006

Based on material from Soviet archives, a new Japanese TV program has been broadcasting history North Korea would prefer remained hidden.

In the first segment of a three-part series called "North Korea" aired Sunday, NHK, Japan Broadcasting Corporation, showed how the late Kim Il Sung established one-man rule in the country -- initially backed by Stalin -- only to be balked at by Khrushchev and become an annoyance to the politburo.

Thanks to revelations culled from more than 10,000 pages of Soviet documents obtained by NHK, some official versions of North Korea's founding legend were proved to be false, if not outright fabrications.

The program challenged the most important historical episode of Kim's genesis: that he was the heroic leader of an anti-Japan partisan group called the "Korean People's Revolutionary Army" which allegedly liberated Korea from Japanese occupation.

NHK interviewed Kim's former superior, Lt. Col. Vasili Ivanov, a commander of the Soviet Far Eastern Army, to whose 88th Special Brigade young Kim Il Sung belonged.

Pointing at Kim in military uniform in a group photo, Ivanov flatly denied the North Korean story, saying there was no Korean Army for Kim to lead; nor was he engaged in defeating the Japanese army.

Ivanov said: "We judged him not so useful in the fighting."

But Soviet rulers found 33-year-old Kim to be well-suited to the leadership of the nascent communist regime.

NHK interviewed 96-year-old Gregory Mekrel, former Soviet Propaganda director, who said he examined Kim and other candidates for leadership selection and "nurtured Kim in all the state and party affairs."

A Russian photo showed Mekrel among Kim's companions when the leader made a hero's return to his hometown. North Korean TV later deleted the Russian, and replaced his image with that of a Korean man.



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