About the exiled prince

Cecile suggested me to write about this issue, and I would like to do so too, but I don’t know what to write, and moreover I don’t know how to write. It is a delicate subject, there are many sides and every side has different arguments and need-to-carefully-consider facts and ideologies. I know some South-Koreans, but I have never ever come up with the North-Korea topic in front of them. Sometimes they themselves mentioned it, sometimes they started to tell stories, and after that I had the courage to ask some things; but none of these were long, deep conversations. Maybe it is painful and sensitive to the Koreans, like the issue of the national minorities in Austria-Hungary and the present Hungary or the case of Trianon to the Hungarians. Therefore I try to be careful and considerate, and I apologize if I hurt someone with my words.

Today I saw an interview with Kim Hansol, the grandson of the late Kim Jongil. If I hadn’t known who he is, just by looking at the picture I would have thought that he is an ordinary South-Korean guy. I was quite suprised when he started to speak, because his English is clear and understandable. But what was even a greater surprise to me is that based on what he said he is intelligent and quite mature. He is only 17 years old, but his opinion on historical viewpoints and disagreements is exemplary. And – though I am not familiar with the private issues and other stuffs of the Kim family – he is really brave to say such things about his uncle, while in both Koreas, in a Confucian society you mustn’t talk bad about your elders and family members, and especially in North-Korea, when that family member is the leader of the country.

While I was watching the video, I was thinking that how unfair that this nice young man was born into that family. I think he had and probably still has to endure hard times because of his grandfather and ancestry. I would like to believe him, but somewhere in my mind there is always the warning to be aware of North-Korean propaganda and the fear that I was tricked, and this whole is nothing but a cleverly directed show. But I really would like to believe him, and until there is no disproval of the fakeness of this whole thing, I will do believe. I hope he can take adventage of his fame to do good things and to fulfill his dreams.

by Alla