| Kippumjo | |
| Hangul | 기쁨조 |
|---|---|
| Hanja | 기쁨組 |
| RR | Gippeumjo |
| MR | Kippŭmjo |
| Part of a series on |
| Human rights in North Korea |
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TheKippumjo (Korean: 기쁨조; translated asPleasure Squad,Pleasure Brigade, orPleasure Group), sometimes spelledKippeumjo (alsoGippumjo orGippeumjo), is an unconfirmed collection of groups of approximately 2,000 women and girls reportedly maintained by theleader of North Korea for the purpose of providing entertainment, including that of asexual nature, for high-rankingWorkers' Party of Korea (WPK) officials and their families, as well as, occasionally, distinguished guests.
The first two syllables of the name,kippum (기쁨), is a nativeKorean word meaningjoy orhappiness. The suffixjo (Korean: 조;Hanja: 組) is aSino-Korean word which describes a group of people, roughly analogous to the terms "squad" or "team".
A 2015Fox News article, citing the South Korean newspaperThe Chosun Ilbo, says that "pleasure squads" have reportedly existed since the administration of North Korea's first leader,Kim Il Sung.[1] According to a 2003 article on the South Korean news website SisaFocus, it is said that the first group was recruited in 1978 byRi Dong-ho, the First Vice Director of theUnited Front Department of the Workers' Party of Korea, for the purpose of entertaining Kim at the Munsu Chodaeso (문수 초대소; Munsu Guesthouse).[2]
Bradley K Martin's 2004 bookUnder the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader is based on a combination of visits to North Korea, research and interviews with defectors carried out in the early 1990s. Martin writes that Kim Il Sung was not just interested in pleasure, but also in rejuvenating himself through absorbing a young virgin'ski, or life-force, during sex.[3]
There were rumors that Kim Il Sung's son and successor,Kim Jong Il, also maintained aKippumjo, according to an unnamed North Korean defector reported in the online newspaperDaily NK in 2013.[4] The group that used to perform for Kim Jong Il was disbanded shortly afterhis death in December 2011, according toThe Chosun Ilbo in April 2015. The newspaper said that members of Kim Jong Il'sKippumjo were made to sign a pledge of secrecy in exchange for money and gifts. According to the paper, the women who worked as entertainers received an amount of money worth up to $4,000 before returning to their hometowns. The members of the squad were also said to have received compensation in the form of home appliances.[5][1]
In 2015,Kim Jong Un, the son and successor to Kim Jong Il, was said to be seeking new members for his ownKippumjo after his father's group of women had been disbanded, according toThe Chosun Ilbo.[5] The story also appeared in Britain'sDaily Telegraph newspaper.[1][6][7]
Little is known outside North Korea about theKippumjo, and most reports are based on the accounts ofNorth Koreans who have defected, particularly Mi-Hyang, who told the magazineMarie Claire in 2010 that she had been aKippumjo member,[8][9] andKenji Fujimoto, who says he was a chef to Kim Jong Il.[10] Further testimony is provided by personal bodyguard Kang Jin.[11]
According to British journalistJasper Becker, writing for theAsia Times in 2003, a former bodyguard has said that eachpleasure group was composed of threeteams:
Kippumjo is briefly discussed in the 2009 bookNothing to Envy by US journalistBarbara Demick. The book is based on interviews withNorth Korean defectors. According to Demick, girls from throughout the country were recruited to beKippumjo members according to government criteria.[13]Suki Kim, aKorean American journalist who has lived undercover in North Korea, wrote in 2014 that one of the criteria was that they had to bevirgins.[14] In Bradley K. Martin's 2004 book he says that schools recommended suitable teenage girls to recruiters, with their parents receiving enhanced status and money.[3] Once recruited, members of theKippumjo underwent extensive training, sometimes abroad, according to Mi-Hyang.[8]
Martin adds that women retired fromKippumjo at 22 and married members of the country's elite.[3] In the 2014 memoir of defectorJang Jin-sung,Dear Leader: Poet, Spy, Escapee – A Look Inside North Korea, Jang writes of theKippumjo during the time of Kim Jong Il's rule that: "Most of them go into arranged marriages with personal guards or senior cadres cleared to work in foreign affairs. Some even go on to become cadres themselves."[8] Britain'sDaily Telegraph newspaper reported in 2015 that manyKippumjo members were retired in their 20s and married military officers who were seeking wives.[1]