On a May evening in 1941, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Suk made love in a tent in the Soviet Far East. Newlyweds, they gave themselves to each other, unaware of what the future would bring—their intimacy a result of their mutual struggle against the Japanese. The two revolutionaries shared a rare marital bond: they had fought side-by-side at moments when death seemed certain.
This battle-hardened intimacy led to the birth of Kim Jong Il on February 16, 1942. Somewhere near dawn, the cries of that newborn baby pierced the cold morning air of a guerilla camp near the Soviet border with Manchuria.
On a May evening in 1941, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Suk made love in a tent in the Soviet Far East. Newlyweds, they gave themselves to each other, unaware of what the future would bring—their intimacy a result of their mutual struggle against the Japanese. The two revolutionaries shared a rare marital bond: they had fought side-by-side at moments when death seemed certain.
This battle-hardened intimacy led to the birth of Kim Jong Il on February 16, 1942. Somewhere near dawn, the cries of that newborn baby pierced the cold morning air of a guerilla camp near the Soviet border with Manchuria.
Brandon K. Gauthier, M.A. graduated from Elon University in 2006, and is presently a PhD candidate in American history at Fordham University. Specializing in U.S. diplomatic history, he is at work on a dissertation examining the intellectual history of U.S. foreign relations with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea from 1948 to 1995. He is a monthly contributor to NKnews.