The Girl with Seven Names

by

Hyeonseo Lee

Kim Jong-il/The Dear Leader Character Analysis

Kim Il-sung’s son, Kim Jong-un’s father, and the North Korean dictator and leader of the Kim regime from 1994 until his death in 2011. Like his father, and later his son, Kim Jong-il is a cruel and neglectful leader who strips the North Koreans of their basic human rights and leaves them to suffer and starve. North Koreans everywhere, through intimidation and ideological indoctrination, worship Kim Jong-il like a god, and they celebrate his birthday each year as if it is Christmas. For many North Koreans, Kim Jong-il’s birthday is the only day of the year they are rationed meat or fish to eat. Portraits of Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung must hang in every North Korean home, and citizens are punished severely for any noncompliance.

Kim Jong-il/The Dear Leader Quotes in The Girl with Seven Names

The The Girl with Seven Names quotes below are all either spoken by Kim Jong-il/The Dear Leader or refer to Kim Jong-il/The Dear Leader. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Oppression, Human Rights, and North Korea Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

They had to be the highest objects in the room and perfectly aligned. No other pictures or clutter were permitted on the same wall. Public buildings, and the homes of high-ranking cadres of the Party, were obliged to display a third portrait - of Kim Jong-suk, a heroine of the anti-Japanese resistance who died young. She was the first wife of Kim Il-sung and the sainted mother of Kim Jong-il. I thought she was very beautiful. This holy trinity we called the Three Generals of Mount Paektu.

Related Characters: Hyeonseo Lee (speaker), Kim Il-sung/The Great Leader, Kim Jong-il/The Dear Leader
Related Symbols: The Portraits
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:

About once a month officials wearing white gloves entered every house in the block to inspect the portraits. If they reported a household for failing to clean them—we once saw them shine a flashlight at an angle to see if they could discern a single mote of dust on the glass—the family would be punished.

Related Characters: Hyeonseo Lee (speaker), Kim Il-sung/The Great Leader, Kim Jong-il/The Dear Leader
Related Symbols: The Portraits
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

The one luxury we did buy for the new house was a Toshiba colour television, which was a signal of social status. The television would expand my horizon, and Min-ho’s, dramatically. Not for the “news” it broadcast—we had one channel, Korea Central Television, which showed endlessly repeated footage of the Great Leader or the Dear Leader visiting factories, schools or farms and delivering their on-the-spot guidance on everything from nitrate fertilizers to women’s shoes. Nor for the entertainment, which consisted of old North Korean movies, Pioneers performing in musical ensembles, or vast army choruses praising the Revolution and the Party. Its attraction was that we could pick up Chinese TV stations that broadcast soap operas and glamorous commercials for luscious products. Though we could not understand Mandarin, just watching them provided a window onto an entirely different way of life. Watching foreign TV stations was highly illegal and a very serious offence.

Related Characters: Hyeonseo Lee (speaker), Mother, Min-ho, Kim Il-sung/The Great Leader, Kim Jong-il/The Dear Leader
Page Number: 58-9
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 33 Quotes

I thought of my uncle’s tirade against North Korea when I’d arrived in his apartment in Shenyang over six years ago, and the bizarre truths he’d told me about the Korean War, and the private life of Kim Jong-il. I’d refused to believe him. Ever since, I’d closed my mind to the reality of the regime in North Korea. Unless it directly affected my family, I had never wanted to know. I thought the reason people escaped was because of hunger, or, like me, out of an unexamined sense of curiosity. It had never occurred to me that people would escape for political reasons.

Related Characters: Hyeonseo Lee (speaker), Uncle Jung-gil, Kim Jong-il/The Dear Leader
Page Number: 173
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Girl with Seven Names LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Girl with Seven Names PDF

Kim Jong-il/The Dear Leader Quotes in The Girl with Seven Names

The The Girl with Seven Names quotes below are all either spoken by Kim Jong-il/The Dear Leader or refer to Kim Jong-il/The Dear Leader. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Oppression, Human Rights, and North Korea Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

They had to be the highest objects in the room and perfectly aligned. No other pictures or clutter were permitted on the same wall. Public buildings, and the homes of high-ranking cadres of the Party, were obliged to display a third portrait - of Kim Jong-suk, a heroine of the anti-Japanese resistance who died young. She was the first wife of Kim Il-sung and the sainted mother of Kim Jong-il. I thought she was very beautiful. This holy trinity we called the Three Generals of Mount Paektu.

Related Characters: Hyeonseo Lee (speaker), Kim Il-sung/The Great Leader, Kim Jong-il/The Dear Leader
Related Symbols: The Portraits
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:

About once a month officials wearing white gloves entered every house in the block to inspect the portraits. If they reported a household for failing to clean them—we once saw them shine a flashlight at an angle to see if they could discern a single mote of dust on the glass—the family would be punished.

Related Characters: Hyeonseo Lee (speaker), Kim Il-sung/The Great Leader, Kim Jong-il/The Dear Leader
Related Symbols: The Portraits
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

The one luxury we did buy for the new house was a Toshiba colour television, which was a signal of social status. The television would expand my horizon, and Min-ho’s, dramatically. Not for the “news” it broadcast—we had one channel, Korea Central Television, which showed endlessly repeated footage of the Great Leader or the Dear Leader visiting factories, schools or farms and delivering their on-the-spot guidance on everything from nitrate fertilizers to women’s shoes. Nor for the entertainment, which consisted of old North Korean movies, Pioneers performing in musical ensembles, or vast army choruses praising the Revolution and the Party. Its attraction was that we could pick up Chinese TV stations that broadcast soap operas and glamorous commercials for luscious products. Though we could not understand Mandarin, just watching them provided a window onto an entirely different way of life. Watching foreign TV stations was highly illegal and a very serious offence.

Related Characters: Hyeonseo Lee (speaker), Mother, Min-ho, Kim Il-sung/The Great Leader, Kim Jong-il/The Dear Leader
Page Number: 58-9
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 33 Quotes

I thought of my uncle’s tirade against North Korea when I’d arrived in his apartment in Shenyang over six years ago, and the bizarre truths he’d told me about the Korean War, and the private life of Kim Jong-il. I’d refused to believe him. Ever since, I’d closed my mind to the reality of the regime in North Korea. Unless it directly affected my family, I had never wanted to know. I thought the reason people escaped was because of hunger, or, like me, out of an unexamined sense of curiosity. It had never occurred to me that people would escape for political reasons.

Related Characters: Hyeonseo Lee (speaker), Uncle Jung-gil, Kim Jong-il/The Dear Leader
Page Number: 173
Explanation and Analysis: