The Untold Story of Kim Jong Un’s Mother: A Contradiction at the Heart of the Regime
Ko Yong Hui was born in Osaka, Japan, to parents from Jeju Island, South Korea. Her family were Zainichi Koreans—descendants of those who immigrated during Japan's colonial rule of Korea (1910-1945).
A Hidden Past
Kim Jong Un’s mother, Ko Yong Hui, was born in 1952 in Osaka, Japan. When she was about 10 years old, her family moved to North Korea under a resettlement scheme that ran from 1959 to 1984. This program attracted approximately 93,000 Korean emigrants from Japan, offering them a new life in the North.
Social Status in North Korea
In North Korea, repatriated Koreans from Japan were labeled "jjaepo," a derogatory term indicating contamination by foreign ideologies. This label carries immense weight within the country’s rigid social classification system, known as songbun.
- Songbun places jjaepo in the "wavering class," positioned between the core and hostile classes.
- They face heavy state surveillance and are often denied access to top universities and jobs.
For a family from this background to produce a future leader is, by the regime’s own logic, a profound anomaly.
The Paektu Bloodline Contradiction
"The [regime's] Paektu bloodline is seen as sacred. So the idea of the leader being a jjaepo's son is unimaginable." — Kim Hyung-su, Northern Research Association
The North Korean regime aggressively promotes the "Paektu bloodline" narrative, portraying the Kim dynasty as sacred, originating from Mount Paektu. This narrative is directly contradicted by Ko Yong Hui’s background as a jjaepo. The sacred, pure lineage of the ruling family is deliberately silent on the very real, stigmatized origins of Kim Jong Un’s mother.