By Ko Dong-hwan





Ko Young-hui

A news report unveiled that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's publicly-boasted "pure Baikdu bloodline" was a hoax as his grandfather's "pro-Japanese" history was confirmed.

YTN reported Tuesday it acquired a top secret document from Japan's old Ministry of Army. According to the report, Kim's grandfather on the mother's side, Ko Kyeong-taek, worked at "Hirota Uniform Factory" in Osaka, Japan, and was even promoted to a managerial position. The existence of the factory was indicated in the document as "highly confidential."

"Since the North Korean leader's grandfather was confirmed as a supporter of the Japanese Imperial Army, the state couldn't visibly idolize his mother Ko Young-hui, also a daughter of Ko Kyeong-taek," said Daily NK's chief of Tokyo branch Ko Young-ki.

"The fact makes the leader a ‘grandson of a pro-Japanese faction member,' a valid subject for execution, defined by state regulations as being the criminal's third generation."

The report said North Korea's public silence on Ko Young-hui, who was briefly venerated by the state with a tributary documentary film made last year, draws a sheer disparity from the state's all-out idolization of the leader's grandmother Kim Jong-suk.

The report additionally said Ko Kyeong-taek returned to North Korea in 1962 and told part of his experience in Osaka to Chosun Hwabo, an official magazine of the North Korean Communists Party in Japan.