Book Launch: Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea's Personality Cult

Book Launch Featuring Jonathan Cheng 

Free and open to the public, no RSVP necessary! 

 

For nearly eight decades, North Korea has marched defiantly to its own beat, shaking off its Soviet and Chinese sponsors to emerge as the world’s most enigmatic nation, which includes a personality cult more soaked in religiosity than those constructed by Stalin or Mao. Come hear journalist Jonathan Cheng present his groundbreaking book on the topic, which Evan Osnos of the New Yorker describes as telling a "magnificent tale" and which has been shortlisted for the Cundill Prize for history writing.

 

About the Author:

Jonathan Cheng is the China bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, and was previously the Korea bureau chief, running coverage of the Korean peninsula, including politics and society in both North and South Korea. A native of Toronto, he lives in Beijing. He has traveled to North Korea twice.

 

This event is co-sponsored by UCI's East Asian Studies Department, Center for Critical Korean Studies, History Department, and Forum for the Academy and the Public