August 2026 Book Review
Review of Jonathan Cheng, Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea’s Personality Cult. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2026.
It may at first seem odd to review this book for LCJE, even though the word “Messiah” appears in the title. In fact, there is a direct relevance for the issue of Jews and Jesus.
Jonathan Cheng is bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal in Beijing. His book is a highly detailed, but very readable, account of the rise of the Kim dynasty in what today is North Korea.1 The most notable and even startling fact that emerges is that Korea - this was before there was a North and a South - experienced a huge number of people coming to faith in Jesus through the work of American Presbyterian missionaries. The first Kim, Kim il-sung, was in fact raised by Christian parents who had come to follow Jesus. The city of Pyongyang became known as the “Jerusalem of the East.”
In the early twentieth century, Japan colonized Korea and enforced what eventually became an erasure of Korean identity. To greatly simplify, what I gather from my reading of the book is that for many in Korea, Christianity and Korean nationalism fused, to the point where professed Christians were even willing to kill in order to throw off Japan’s domination of Korea. Along the way, Kim il-sung became the “Great Leader,” abandoning any semblance of Christianity for what became a cult of personality, extended further by his son Kim Jong-il and his grandson, the current leader, Kim Jong Un.
As Cheng works his way through this story, it becomes apparent that much of the Kims’ personality cult is based on a usurpation of Christianity. For instance, Cheng writes:
Kim Chŏng-suk’s [wife of Kim il-Sung] cult would eventually eclipse that of her mother-in-law, Kang Pan-sŏk, joining her husband and her son to form what North Koreans revere as the “Three Generals of Mount Paekdu”—what some scholars have compared to the Holy Trinity, composed not of three distinct personages but rather “an organic, single unit.” (p. 431, Kindle edition)
Or as one reviewer wrote:
A statue of Kim Il-sung had been erected in the city of Hungnam on Dec. 25, 1949. It was the first of many such statues soon to be installed throughout the country, and the date caught my eye. Was Kim trying to substitute himself for Jesus Christ? Was he founding a holiday in his own name to replace Christmas? … the date could not have been random.2
What is the relevance of all this for Jews and Jesus? Not just that the Kims essentially replaced Jesus with themselves and became objects of adoration, hope, and reverence. Jews have had their own experiences with false messiahs and we know what the consequences have been. Not just that the spread of the gospel can be followed by its very opposites. Here in the West, we have seen Christianity eroded and replaced by secularism and an assortment of ideologies.
Rather, the point for us is that what is true and good can be corrupted into its opposite. Christianity in Korea gave way to a cult of personality; Jesus gave way to Kim il-sung. I like to give the French Revolution as another example. Begun under the slogan of “Liberty, Fraternity, Equality,” it soon descended into a bloodbath. Of course no one says that because of the French Revolution, liberty, fraternity and equality should be discarded. We recognize that the events that took place corrupted and distorted those ideals. Likewise, we recognize that Korea’s cult of personality corrupted and distorted the gospel message.
But the Jewish community today has largely rejected Jesus because of the corruption of the gospel that has been anti-Judaism and antisemitism. For many Jews, we have been quick to lay the blame at the feet of the New Testament, Jesus, and Paul.
But to let things lie there is to let the antisemites win. It is to let antisemites control the narrative about Jesus. Had we discarded liberty, fraternity, and equality as ideals because of Robespierre and others, we would have let the “Reign of Terror” control our understanding of those three ideals. To allow the history of Christian antisemitism control our understanding of Jesus and the New Testament is a grave mistake. It is imperative to return to the original understanding of Jesus and reclaim the narrative.3 Fortunately, scholarship is turning in that direction: witness the rise of schools of thought such as “Paul Within Judaism,” “Jesus Within Judaism,” and post-superssionist thinking. But scholarship does not quickly translate into boots on the ground.
As to Korea, the cult of personality should not lead anyone to discard the gospel. In the North, however, the gospel is not even an alternative option; while in contrast South Korea is known for its vibrant Christianity, especially of the Presbyterian variety, and its fielding of missionaries to other nations.
I commend Korean Messiah to you as fascinating in its own right, and a reminder of what corruption of the gospel can mean in the long term - for Jews and for Koreans both.
End Notes:
1 One reviewer, positive about the book, notes that it neglects the influence of previous monoarchies as well as neo-Confucian thought on the Kim regimes. See Bruce Cumings, “What North Korea’s Cult of Personality Owes Christianity” [book review], New York Times, April 14, 2026.
2 Ibid.
3 I am simplifying. Many contemporary scholars do not believe the New Testament accurately reflects the teaching of Jesus, but that is a matter for another time.