Naturalization of `real` Kim Il Sung descendants

General Kim Kyong Chon (1888-1942) was a pioneer who fought for Korea`s liberation from Japan`s colonial rule, riding a white horse across Manchuria and Siberia. The Soviet Union paid close attention to him as the leader of Koreans in the Primorsky Territory in Russian Far East. He graduated from a Japanese military academy and served as a chivalry officer in the Imperial Japanese military, before defecting to Manchuria, serving as an instructor for a Korean military academy and waging anti-Japanese struggles. There are rumors that he is the "real" Kim Il Sung. The South Korean government is seeking to grant seven of his descendants living in Russia special naturalization to Seoul on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of national liberation.

On October 14, 1945, a 33-year-old Kim Il Sung showed up at a public rally in Pyongyang to welcome Russian troops. The crowd, who expected an old legendary general, booed him for being a fake or went home out of disappointment. The Soviet Union made an elaborate plan to put him, then a captain of the Soviet army, in charge of North Korea. Nikolay Lebedev, a political commander of the Soviet military council that occupied the northern part of the Korean Peninsula, later recalled that Moscow had been aware that Kim Il Sung`s real name was Kim Sung Ju but let him use the new name as the symbol of the anti-Japanese fighter and national hero.

The young Kim Il Sung, for his part, was also involved in anti-Japanese struggles. The June 5, 1937 edition of the Dong-A Ilbo reported in two extra editions that a militia group led by Kim raided Pochonbo, a border area in North Hamgyong Province. When the Korean independence forces` activities were affected by Japan`s oppression, there were continued media reports that a group led by Kim and Choe Hon attacked a Japanese post office and a government office and clashed with the Japanese police. At that time, Kim was 25.

The North claims that Kim Sung Ju changed his name to Kim Il Sung around 1930, when he organized the Korean Revolutionary Army and that his new name originated from his nickname "big star general," which was given by Kim`s colleagues who hoped he would become a "star-like general." General Kim Kyong Chon was arrested by the Soviet authorities in 1936 and sentenced to three years in prison, before dying in prison. If he was the real Kim Il Sung, he would lament what happened in North Korea in his name.

eligius@donga.com