Among Kim Jong-un’s gifts to some of North Korea’s high-ranking officials this year were copies of Hitler’s Mein Kampf, according to a trusted source who serves as a DPRK official in China. To mark Kim Jong-un’s birthday on January 8th, DPRK officials ranked departmental director and above in the National Defence Committee were presented with the autobiography of Adolf Hitler in the form of a “hundred-copy book”. (This refers to a limited edition of translated books which are officially banned but have been published in secret for the consumption of members of the North Korean elite.)
During the rule of Kim Jong-un’s father, Kim Jong-il, DPRK officials received holiday gifts of western liquor, tailoring fabric and other foreign luxury goods. Since Kim Jong-un came to power, however, the leader’s customary holiday gifts have been very different, including items such as imported sports equipment, CDs and foreign books in translation.
“Kim Jong-un gave a lecture to high-ranking officials, stressing that we must pursue the policy of Byungjin (Korean for ‘in tandem’) in terms of nuclear and economic development. Mentioning that Hitler managed to rebuild Germany in a short time following its defeat in WWI, Kim Jong-un issued an order for the Third Reich to be studied in depth and asked that practical applications be drawn from it,” the source told us in a telephone interview.
He added that Kim Jong-un highlighted sports as the secret behind Germany’s unity and ideological successes. Kim also stressed the superiority of Hitler’s thinking in childhood-related policies, and issued an order for propaganda departments to encourage a “Three Child” policy.
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Rumours have been spreading among the Pyongyang elite that Kim Jong-un made a close study of Hitler while at school in Switzerland, according to a second trusted North Korean source, a DPRK business representative and a frequent traveler between Pyongyang and China. Spreading rumours among the elite that reinforce a message delivered through other channels has long been a tactic of North Korea’s propagandists.
We were also told that Choe Pu-il, the director of People’s Security (secret police) made a speech at a national security meeting in which he referred to the Gestapo: “We are equivalent to a police force. In other countries, people fear the police more than they fear the army. Stop focusing on ways to make money in the markets, and mould yourselves after the Gestapo.
You can't make it up...
