February 16, 2024, also known as the “Day of the Shining Star,” marked North Korea’s former leader, Kim Jong-il’s, birthday. State propaganda claims that the late Kim was born in a “secret camp” at Mount Paektu between 1941 to 1942 when his father was fighting Japanese colonialism. However, Soviet Union records show that he was born in the Russian Far East near Khabarovsk in 1941 as his father did not travel to North Korea until after the USSR took over North Korea following Japan’s defeat in World War II. 

Kim Jong-il succeeded his father to the throne in 1994 and ruled over the kingdom until his passing in 2011. Although Kim Jong-il is famous for causing the devastating famine in the late 1990s that took the lives of hundreds of thousands of North Koreans, North Korea’s founding leader, Kim Il-sung, is known to have shaped the country into the isolated kingdom that it stands today. For instance, Kim Il-sung created the songbun system, instituted a system of travel permits that prohibits its people from leaving the country and constructed a sophisticated network of labor camps to punish and re-educate political prisoners.

NATIONAL CELEBRATIONS FOR KIM’S BIRTHDAY

According to state media, Rodong Sinmun, the current Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, recently convened a “National Meeting” in the northern city of Samjiyon near the Chinese border to celebrate his late father’s birthday. The newspaper attributed the country’s success and growth in the military, economy and culture to the late Kim’s “miraculous” achievements. Kim Jong-un gave a speech commemorating Kim Jong-il as a “stepping stone” leader who left a “revolutionary legacy” for him to carry forward today. A top official, Ri Il-hwan, also praised Kim Jong-il for building up the military to challenge “U.S. Imperialists.” 

Kim Jong-il’s birthday anniversary is one of North Korea’s most important holidays. The Korean Central News Agency reported that overseas celebratory events were held in Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan and Switzerland earlier this month, while flower baskets were flown from abroad to be laid in front of the statues of the former leaders in Pyongyang. The celebration in Pyongyang alone was attended by hundreds of attendees, who stood in the cold at a maximum temperature of 5 F (-15 C), listening to state officials give praises to Kim Jong-il and his policies to safeguard the ruling party’s power during the great famine, which was described by Ri as a time the country fought off “the peak of anti-socialist madness in the 1990s” and when its people voluntarily undertook great suffering as a result. 

Later the same day, Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang hosted an “evening gala of youth and students” featuring a fireworks show that was even attended by foreign diplomats remaining in the city. Moreover, a source in North Pyongan Province told Daily NK that holiday gifts were distributed to cadres of party and government organizations across the country between February 11 and 14, while Central Committee officials received two kilograms of pork, a duck, a chicken, a box of eggs, 10 kilograms of pollock, fruits, dried seaweed, sweets, five kilograms of wheat, 4.5 kilograms of oil and 10 bottles of fine alcohol in addition to their monthly rations.

LITTLE HOLIDAY SPIRIT FOR ITS PEOPLE

Meanwhile, the North Korean people suffered from the celebrations. According to a source from Hyesan in Yanggang Province, citizens were ordered by the government to pay for firewood needed for special guard duty on the Day of the Shining Star. The source complained that families were demanded to provide “stacks of firewood costing KPW 3,000, which is enough to buy one kilogram of corn. This was very upsetting because it’s a serious burden for people who can’t afford to eat regularly, even during the holiday.”

Another source reported that a team from the Central Committee’s accounting department traveled to Hwangju County earlier this month to collect premium-quality apples typically sent as gifts to officials on special occasions and major holidays, known as category 8, in preparation for Kim Jong-il’s birthday. However, as locals were unable to meet the quota demanded by the team, the province’s party committee punished workers responsible for supplying the apples. In particular, workers faced criticisms for “inappropriate conduct” towards the country’s revolutionary leadership due to the insufficient supply of quality apples.