Remote Graveyard On Resort Island Shows Kim Jong-Un’s Close Links To South Korea

This photo shows the entrance of a graveyard with tombstones bearing the Ko family name, relatives of Kim Jong Un through his mother — North Korea's Kim Jong Un Oversees Military Parade With Horses, Dogs And Tractors Photo by Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un may have closer familial links to South Korea than he might care to admit. In a remote cemetery on the resort island of Jeju, South Korea lies the silent proof of Kim’s relatives from his mother’s side.

According to AFP, the hard-to-find cemetery has been the final resting place of Kim’s relatives through his mother, Ko Yong Hui. The graveyard bears 13 tombstones with the Ko family name with many of Kim’s mother’s immediate kin buried, including his maternal great-grandfather, reported France 24. The graves were discovered in 2014 and at the time the graves were discovered, they were only known as the “empty grave”, indicated on a plaque in honor of Kim’s maternal grandfather Ko Gyong Taek.

The leader’s mother was born in Osaka in 1952. Her lineage began as a native Jeju islander who moved to Japan in 1929 at the time when Tokyo had colonial rule over the Korean peninsula. Her family moved to North Korea in the 1960s during the repatriation program by Pyongyang.

His mother’s family answered the call to relocate to what was branded a “socialist paradise”. They lived a normal life in North Korea until she caught the eye of Kim’s father. She was officially recognized as Kim Jong Il’s partner in 1975, as there is no official record of their marriage to this day. Kim’s mother died in 2004.

Although experts have given light to the South Korean heritage of Kim’s mother following his rise to power, Pyongyang has never confirmed such details.

In a statement from the Center for North Korea Studies at the Sejong Institute, it said that Kim’s regime may have feared that any such confirmation could undermine the legitimacy of Kim’s rule. Official hagiography follows the “Paektu bloodline”, wherein Kim is placed as the third member of the Kim family. He has followed in the footsteps of his ruling ancestors, his grandfather Kim Il Sung and his father Kim Jong Il.

The Kim dynasty has since based its rule on Kim Il Sung’s involvement in driving out Japan as a guerilla fighter as it won Korea’s independence in 1945. Kim Jong Un came to power in 2011 following the death of his father.