Monument on Mt. Kumgang Deifies Kim Jong-un's Mother

North Korea has built a stone monument in the scenic Mt. Kumgang resort deifying leader Kim Jong-un's mother Ko Yong-hui, whose name has been unmentionable for decades, Japan's Sankei Shimbun reported Monday.

The photo shows a large stone engraved with red characters reading, "Great Leader Kim Jong-il as he toured Mt. Kumgang with the 'Mother of Songun Chosun' and 'Dear Leader Kim Jong-un' in December 1997."

The daily said that the North also produced a movie about Ko, after her one-time husband Kim Jong-il's disastrous "songun" or military-first doctrine.

This new assertiveness about a woman who had been expunged from the record for tainting the deeply racist leadership's bloodline suggests Kim Jong-un now feels secure in his grip on power.

The reason for her uncertain status is that Ko was born and raised in Osaka, Japan, the daughter of a South Korean father. She became Kim Jong-il's third wife in the 1970s after moving to Pyongyang under a bizarre campaign that led to a mass migration of Japanese to North Korea in late 1950s and early 1960s.

The mother of Jong-un, his older brother Jong-chol and younger sister Yo-jong, Ko is thought to have died in Paris in 2004.

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