Kim Song Ju, the man who would become Kim Il Sung, was born to devout Presbyterian parents. Billy Graham’s wife was born to christian missionaries in China and went to high school in Pyongyang. American protestants once spread the gospel in northwest Korea and found fertile ground for their gospel message. Kim listened, learned, and used those teachings to shape a cult of personality that rules North Korea to this day.

On this episode of Angry Planet I’m joined by Wall Street Journal China bureau chief Jonathan Cheng to talk about his new book Korean Messiah. Cheng’s work is an exploration of the origins of North Korea and Kim’s deep ties to American Christianity.

Angry Planet as dress rehearsal
Billy Graham in the Hermit Kingdom
19th century Protestant missionaries in Korea
Presbyterians in the untamed northwest
Untangling the history of a self-made godking
The Kim Song Ju nativity
Women without names
Attending church during the Fire and Fury period
The Soviet era
Leading from beyond the grave
Kim bombs his first public appearance

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