Smuggler of Trees Carved by Kim Il-sung Executed
by Richardson ~ August 5th, 2007. Filed under: Defectors & Refugees, Law, North Korea.North Korean cult mythology tells us that Kim Il-sung carved at least hundreds of anti-imperialist or anti-Japanese slogans into trees throughout Korea during his time as a freedom fighter before World War II. These trees – “slogan trees” – are now national treasures in North Korea and many are protected with glass enclosures (see pic below).
While Kim Il-sung and other freedom fighters may well have carved a few slogans into trees, it’s unlikely they carved all of them, and some have reported that many of the trees claimed to have been carved by him were either too young or simply not even growing before WWII.
One North Korean timber trader and apparently a skeptic of the national religion reportedly dared to cut down and sell a number of these trees, and has been executed for it:
North Korea has publicly executed a trade official for chopping down and smuggling cherished “slogan trees” on which founding leader Kim Il-Sung reputedly carved anti-Japanese messages. . . Senior local timber trader Oh Mun-Hyok was shot dead and four accomplices sentenced to life imprisonment on July 23. . . Local government and trade officials were forced to watch Oh’s public execution at Yonsa in the northern province of North Hamkyong. . .
The punishment was harsh because the timber smuggled to China included “slogan trees” on which Kim Il-Sung and his followers had allegedly carved messages against Japan’s colonial rule in 1920s or 1930s, it said.
[. . .]
Slogans included “General Kim Il-Sung is the nation’s sun!,” “Long live Kim Jong-Suk (Kim Il-Sung’s wife), an anti-Japanese woman commander!” or “Down with Japan’s imperialism” according to North Korean defectors.
Pyongyang media claim more than 1,000 such slogan-inscribed trees still exist across the country, and often report some soldiers or other people had died while trying to save the trees from a brush fire. (emhasis added)
August 5th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
Yeah, that is like defacing a portrait, and that spells death as you know. Yes, it does seem silly because according to a North Korea documentary called “Welcome To North Korea” where a former propagandist talked about these trees. He said a group of Japanese visitors stopped to look at the tree, and one of them was a botanist.
He questioned how the carvings were made 50 years ago when the tree did not exist then. Now I do not know of that is true (because it is not best to question the barrage of propaganda by the guides) or what happened, but all the same, the god like image of the Kims are very real.
I cannot remember the links (I’ll post them as I find them) but I remember reading about how different areas are considered sacred like where Kim Il Sung visited, where he sat (National Geographic had a documentary about a “special bench” where it is glass enclosed) and all sorts of things.
I also noticed North Korea has stepped up the propaganda campaign because I believe more and more information is getting smuggled in.
August 5th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
I may have read something similar about the age of the trees in Kim Il-sung: The North Korean leader (by Suh Dae-sook), but am not sure.
Imagine being executed for cutting down a tree less than sixty years old because Kim Il-sung carved on it in the nation’s mythology.
August 5th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
I made a post on my crappy forums about it, and it does seem interesting how the propaganda has stepped up. I did find the link to the increased spending on propaganda, and according to this article:
http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk01300&num=1529
“Seeing American news reports that 40% of North Korea’s national budget is spent on Kim Father and Son idolization propaganda, South Korean citizens are asking themselves if that much money could really be spent on that.
Up until now, the actual number of idolization figures and the amount of money allocated for them has not been revealed. However, when we look at the number and size of these idolization figures springing up all over North Korea, the fact that these represent a large dedicated portion of the national budget can be easily ascertained. If every kind of idolization propaganda item were put together, the number would equal several hundred times the number of crosses on churches throughout the South.
The amount of money spent on statues and anniversary celebrations for Turkmenistan’s deceased leader Nayajopuna, or on Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, are no match for the amount spent on Kim Father and Son.”
Yes, the exact numbers are not known, but it is obvious it is not cheap. Oh, and I posted a screen shot of the special bench (I do not know of this blog uses html or bbcode for posting images, quotes and the like, so you can make it into an image if you want):
I do think he did not take the time to carve all those trees, and I also think some others agree with that.
August 5th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
hah! it looks like the html code did not work, so here is a hard link to the special bench: http://dprkforum.com/dprk_images/bench.gif sorry about that.
August 6th, 2007 at 8:02 am
[…] In North Korea, a man is executed for cutting down “slogan trees,” a fraudulent propaganda creation said to contain the inscriptions of Kim Il Sung’s […]
August 6th, 2007 at 9:03 am
[…] (Hat Tip DPRK Studies) […]
August 7th, 2007 at 11:57 pm
The fact that somebody would be executed for chopping down a tree that was not even alive when Kim Il Sung allegedly wrote the slogun on it is the height of the North Korean propaganda machine’s stupidity! If North Korea is ever freed from its tyrannical government, I suspect that we will be hearing many more outrageous stoies like this.
August 8th, 2007 at 9:44 am
Whole families are also sent to concentration camps for real or perceives slights against the regime; literally for saying what may or may not be the wrong thing. You can bet there will be books, movies, and testimony aplenty after the regime falls.
August 8th, 2007 at 9:58 am
Richardson, I would be very interested to see what is found after the government is no longer there. I bet all sorts of stuff will be found. Like Nazi Germany, the concentration camps were not well known to the outside until later. Once Hitler was gone was it realized just how bad it was, and took many decades to unravel the very level of tyranny, corruption and shady deals. I am suspecting that is going to be the case with North Korea.
The sooner that government is gone, the better.
August 8th, 2007 at 10:23 am
Jack, I’m sure that is correct. It’s a shame we can’t do something about it now;
http://freekorea.us/2007/08/04/beyond-the-drum-circle-stopping-genocide-in-the-real-world/
August 8th, 2007 at 10:43 am
I read the entry, and is very well-written. All these summits, talks, money, and other things are discussed but never about the humanitarian crisis and the camps. I never seen any report of any official saying, “Hey Kim, now that were are here sipping drinks, eating cookies and discussing giving you tons of supplies for your regime, let us talk about the thousands of innocent people in your gulags…”
Yes, there is something we can do about it, but nothing will be done about it because it is so much easier to talk instead of act. Give in to the demands, waste more money and hope things will change. Nothing has changed, nothing will change, and Kim Jong Il will continue to do what he wants. The sustainability of his iron grip on power is first and foremost on his agenda as you very well know.
So now Kim gets all this stuff and gives nothing in return but a big middle finger. All the while we still want to “talk” to this shell of what appears to be something human, but really is not. I can go on a rant for hours about it, but the sentiments are pretty much agreed here, so I will abstain from such behavior.
One thing that is clear is one day we will look back on how it was handled and say “oops, we should have not done that.” and as One Free Korea suggested, that was said before and lessons have not been learned from history because we have the feel gooders.