North Korea: "Chukjibeop is Actually Impossible"…Notable Denial of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il Mystification

"People disappearing and reappearing is impossible"
Restraint on deification used to justify the 3-generation hereditary system

North Korea has expressed a stance denying the mystical nature of the 'Chukjibeop' (Earth-shrinking technique) that was used to mystify its supreme leaders, Chairman Kim Il-sung and National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-il, drawing attention to the background of this position. Chukjibeop is a fictional technique that allows one to move rapidly as if teleporting over long distances. North Korea has propagated that Kim Il-sung used Chukjibeop during his anti-Japanese guerrilla days to defeat the Japanese imperialists.

On the 20th, the Workers' Party organ, Rodong Sinmun, in an article titled "The Secret of Chukjibeop," stated, "In reality, a person cannot disappear and reappear, nor can they roam the land by folding it," and added, "The reason we were able to defeat the heavily armed Japanese imperialists during the anti-Japanese armed struggle was due to the active support and assistance of the masses."

The newspaper explained that Chukjibeop is not a magical spiritual skill of a sorcerer but a realistic strategy achieved through cooperation with the people.

The paper said, "The Japanese imperialists mobilized vast forces to suppress the anti-Japanese guerrillas, planting spies wherever they went to detect the guerrillas' locations and attacking from all directions. However, whenever they appeared, the people would promptly inform our command about the number of suppression troops, their departure times, and which valleys they entered."

It continued, "Then we held commanders' meetings to devise detailed operational plans. We disguised the guerrillas as if they were still there, while the actual units quietly withdrew to ambush. The unsuspecting Japanese imperialists confidently entered, only to find no guerrillas and were stunned, retreating in panic. At that moment, the guerrillas struck like a sudden thunderbolt and annihilated them. As a result, the Japanese imperialists screamed that the guerrillas used Chukjibeop and were elusive."

The newspaper emphasized, "If Chukjibeop exists, it is the Chukjibeop of the masses."

This realistic explanation of Chukjibeop is somewhat unusual. Until now, North Korea has glorified the three-generation hereditary system of the Kim family to an extreme degree in history textbooks and other materials, demonstrating the peak of idol worship and leader deification.

North Korean textbooks and educational materials for residents include content that Kim Il-sung, during his anti-Japanese armed struggle, made rice from sand, bullets from pine cones, used Chukjibeop, and crossed large rivers by riding on fallen leaves.

In 1996, North Korea produced and distributed a propaganda song titled "The General Uses Chukjibeop." The lyrics go, "Chukjibeop, Chukjibeop, the General uses it / Flashing east and west, controlling the world / Commanding thousands of miles, the General goes." The song claims that Kim Jong-il used Chukjibeop to lead the war to victory. Such absurd deification ironically led to doubts about even Kim Il-sung's anti-Japanese movement credentials.

North Korea's first-grade elementary school textbook also contains a story where Kim Jong-il saw Korea and Japan marked in red on a world map, painted Japan black with ink, and suddenly the entire Japanese archipelago was plunged into darkness with heavy rain pouring down.

Through textbooks, reference books, and maps, North Korea has exerted all efforts to glorify and justify the three-generation dictatorship system, but under Kim Jong-un's leadership, there have been some changes.

In March last year, Kim Jong-un said, "Mystifying the revolutionary activities and demeanor of the leader obscures the truth." In a letter sent to the 2nd National Party Junior Propaganda Workers Conference, he stated, "The leader is not a being detached from the people but a leader who shares life and death with the people and dedicates himself to their happiness."

This is seen as an attempt to highlight that a leader is not a divine being but a human leader closely connected to the people's lives and striving to improve them.

North Korean State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong Un attended the completion ceremony of the Suncheon Fertilizer Factory on May 1, Labor Day, according to Korean Central TV on the 2nd. Chairman Kim is seen clapping at the completion ceremony site.

There is also analysis that Kim Jong-un's aversion to Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il underlies the cessation of supreme leader idolization.

Last October, while touring Mount Kumgang, Kim Jong-un said, "Due to the wrong policies of predecessors who easily handed over tourist sites and tried to benefit by sitting idle, Mount Kumgang was neglected for over ten years, leaving blemishes," and added, "The land is precious. The predecessors' dependency policies, relying on others when national power was weak, were very wrong."

Here, the predecessors refer to his father, Kim Jong-il, and this is interpreted as a pointed criticism of the previous generation. This was considered very unusual in North Korea, where the previous generation's instructions are regarded as sacred.

Some analysts suggest that with the spread of smartphones exceeding six million and the changing information capabilities of residents, the authorities' propaganda methods have changed. It is not due to Kim Jong-un's sincerity or goodwill that idolization has stopped, but because now, baseless stories can no longer blind the eyes and ears of the people.