“[T]he 1919 uprising is memorialized in the North without a public holiday as an example of how badly things go when a nation lacks a parental leader. This doesn’t stop propaganda from claiming the protests originated under the influence of Kim Hyŏng-jik, the father of Kim Il Sung, who himself impressed everyone at the age of six by … but never mind. The Blue House is unlikely to quibble with this version of history on the day itself. With these meshing tendencies and measures the ruling camp evidently hopes to bond with the Kim regime over a shared anti-Japanese tradition, to present today’s ROK and DPRK as branches of the same Shanghai tree, put nationalism above liberal-democratic principles, and minimize opposition to all these things. No less obvious is the larger goal.”

— Brian Reynolds Myers

2010s, Confederation Again (July 2018)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Brian Reynolds Myers 149

American professor of international studies 1963

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“Seoul doesn't have the will to "De-Kim Il Sungify" North Korea.”

Brian Reynolds Myers (1963) American professor of international studies

As quoted in "The Uses and Misuses of Ideology" https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk00100&num=8158 (8 September 2011), by Chris Green, The Daily NK
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“The DPRK derives its legitimacy from the myth that the anti-Japanese hero Kim Il Sung was all right-thinking citizens' choice as the man to found and lead the new Korea after liberation in 1945… Until the mid-1960s the USSR was credited with defeating Japan, but since then propaganda has claimed that Kim and his guerillas freed the race on their own. That this is known to be untrue by those who lived through the time is of minor importance. The painful historical reality of mass collaboration (and the military insignificance of all armed Korean resistance to colonial rule) is precisely what made the Kim myth so attractive.”

Brian Reynolds Myers (1963) American professor of international studies

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Brian Reynolds Myers (1963) American professor of international studies

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Brian Reynolds Myers (1963) American professor of international studies

2010s, "Heaven is Helping Us": More from the Nationalist Left (August 2018)

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