Korean Messiah - by Jonathan Cheng (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A landmark history of North Korea, told through the rise of the Kim Dynasty and its surprising ties to American Christianity--a spectacular, penetrating account of a world like no other. North Korea. The Hermit Kingdom. For eight decades, it has marched defiantly to its own beat, shaking off its Soviet and Chinese sponsors to emerge as one of the world's most enigmatic nations-a nuclear-armed state ruled by a dictatorial dynasty unlike any the world has seen. Underpinning the state is a personality cult larger and more soaked in religiosity than those constructed by Stalin or Mao-one that, unbeknownst to the world, traces its roots back to the Christian fervor of post-Civil War America. In Korean Messiah, Jonathan Cheng, the Wall Street Journal's China bureau chief and former Korea bureau chief, takes us deep inside Pyongyang, a city once so dominated by Christianity it was known as "the Jerusalem of the East." Cheng introduces us to Samuel Moffett, a Presbyterian missionary from Madison, Indiana who would venture into Pyongyang at the turn of the nineteenth century and build a remarkable following-one that would include the very Kim family that today presides over one of the world's harshest persecutors of the Christian faith. At the center of this story-its messiah-is North Korea's founder, Kim Il Sung, son of two fervent Christians and progenitor of an ideology known as Kimilsungism, an exercise in idolatry that has elevated him, and his successor son and grandson, to Christ-like status, from the humble manger where he was born to the subway seat on which the venerated leader once placed his posterior, cordoned off as if it were a religious relic. Drawing on letters, diaries, and never-before-unearthed archival material that temper and oftentimes contradict the glorious historical record promoted by Kim Il Sung's legions of hagiographers, Korean Messiah tells the true story of a country shrouded in fictions"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

A landmark history of North Korea, told through the rise of the Kim dynasty and its surprising ties to American Christianity--a spectacular, penetrating account of a world like no other

North Korea. The Hermit Kingdom. For nearly eight decades, it has marched defiantly to its own beat, shaking off its Soviet and Chinese sponsors to emerge as the world's most enigmatic nation--a nuclear-armed state ruled by a dictatorial dynasty. Underpinning the state is a personality cult more soaked in religiosity than those constructed by Stalin or Mao--one that traces its roots back to the Christian fervor of post-Civil War America.

Jonathan Cheng, the Wall Street Journal's China bureau chief and former Korea bureau chief, takes us deep inside Pyongyang, a city once so dominated by Christianity it was known as the "Jerusalem of the East." Cheng introduces us to Samuel Moffett, a Presbyterian missionary from Madison, Indiana, who would venture into Pyongyang at the turn of the nineteenth century and build a remarkable following--one that would include the Kim family that today presides over one of the world's harshest persecutors of the Christian faith.

At the center of this story is North Korea's founder, Kim Il Sung, son of two fervent Christians and progenitor of an ideology known as Kimilsungism, an exercise in idolatry that has elevated him, and his successor son and grandson, to Christlike status, from the humble manger where he was born to the subway seat on which the venerated leader once placed his posterior, cordoned off as if it were a religious relic.

Drawing on letters, diaries, and never-before-unearthed archival material that temper and often contradict the glorious historical record promoted by Kim Il Sung's legions of hagiographers, Korean Messiah tells the true story of a country shrouded in fictions.

Review Quotes

"Provocative and fascinating, Korean Messiah casts fresh light on North Korea. Jonathan Cheng shows how this country, more hostile to religion than any in the world, was built on a bedrock of Christianity by its founder Kim Il Sung, who discarded the evangelical faith of his family and harnessed its power to create a cult of personality that has endured into the third generation. It's a contrarian approach to North Korea that is nonetheless convincingly argued and meticulously documented." --Barbara Demick, author of Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

"How do personality cults take hold? What happens when leaders mix politics and faith to demand immense sacrifices? Jonathan Cheng's magnificent tale poses questions about the world far beyond North Korea. This utterly eye-opening history deciphers a defining pattern of global politics in the 21st century."--Evan Osnos, New Yorker staff writer, National Book Award-winning author of Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China

"Korean Messiah is a long-overdue and important addition to our understanding of contemporary North Korea. Cheng expertly fills in another missing piece of the DPRK puzzle."
--Adam Johnson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Orphan Master's Son

"Journalists have been telling the same stories about North Korea for decades, but with Korean Messiah, Jonathan Cheng has done something remarkable: Shown us how Kim Il Sung weaponized his Christian upbringing in the 'Jerusalem of the East' to gain power and hold onto it despite the odds. This is important reading for understanding how the North Korean regime has managed to persist." --Anna Fifield, Asia-Pacific editor at The Washington Post and author of The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un

"Jonathan Cheng illuminates an important but little understood layer of the mystery of North Korea: how the ruling Kim family drew from Christianity to create one of the most repressive regimes in modern history. This is a fascinating account of the lost community of Presbyterian missionaries from America who transformed Pyongyang into a city known back then as the 'Jerusalem of the East, ' and their lasting impact on North Korea even as the regime seeks to stamp out Christianity from everyday life today." --Jean H. Lee, former Pyongyang bureau chief at the Associated Press

"This is an extraordinary book. Jonathan Cheng analyses in minute detail the influence on the young Kim Il Sung of the staunchly Christian family in which he grew up, the profound impact of this upbringing on the way that he and his successors have ruled North Korea since, and the efforts of North Korean propagandists to strip these influences from the official narrative. He carefully dissects the religious roots of many of North Korea's current practices and shows why, having stolen so much from Christianity, the regime is so anxious to prevent the faith itself from reestablishing a presence in North Korea. This is a very valuable contribution to our understanding of this deeply puzzling country." --John Everard, former UK ambassador to North Korea

"Korean Messiah is truly a revelation for understanding one of the most opaque, and dangerous, regimes on the planet. Jonathan Cheng's indefatigable research digs up the Christian roots of the dynasty forged by Kim Il Sung and exposes the curious ways in which a missionary mindset shapes the country under his grandson, Kim Jong Un. Fusing the rigor of a historian with the style of a journalist, Korean Messiah tells the unlikely story of how Christianity accidentally shaped a communist dictatorship." --John Delury, Asia Society senior fellow, coauthor of Wealth and Power: China's Long March to the Twenty-first Century

About the Author

JONATHAN CHENG is the China bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, and was previously the Korea bureau chief, running coverage of the Korean peninsula, including politics and society in both North and South Korea. A native of Toronto, he lives in Beijing. He has traveled to North Korea twice.