Kippumjo

The Kippumjo (Korean: 기쁨조; translated as Pleasure Squad, Pleasure Brigade, or Pleasure Group), sometimes spelled Kippeumjo (also Gippumjo or Gippeumjo), is a collection of groups of approximately 2,000 women and girls reportedly maintained by the leader of North Korea for the purpose of providing entertainment, including that of a sexual nature, for high-ranking Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) officials and their families, as well as, occasionally, distinguished guests.

Kippumjo
Chosŏn'gŭl
Hancha
기쁨組
Revised RomanizationGippeumjo
McCune–ReischauerKippŭmjo
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Little is known outside North Korea about the Kippumjo, and most reports are based on the accounts of North Koreans who have defected, particularly Mi-Hyang, who told the magazine Marie Claire in 2010 that she had been a Kippumjo member,[1][2] and Kenji Fujimoto, who says he was a chef to Kim Jong Il.[3]

Etymology

The first two syllables of the name, kippum, is a native Korean word meaning joy or happiness. The suffix jo (組) is a Sino-Korean word which describes a group of people, roughly analogous to the terms "squad" or "team".

Bradley K Martin's 2004 book Under 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's ki, or life-force, during sex.[4]

History

Kim Il-sung

According to Fox News, the Kippumjo have existed since the administration of North Korea's first leader, Kim Il Sung.[5] The first group was recruited in 1978 by Ri Dong-ho, the First Vice Director of the United Front Department of the Workers' Party of Korea, for the purpose of entertaining Kim at the Munsu Chodaeso (문수 초대소; Munsu Guesthouse).[6]

Kim Jong-il

There were rumours that Kim Il Sung's son and successor, Kim Jong Il, also maintained a Kippumjo, according to an unnamed North Korean defector reported in the online newspaper Daily NK in 2013.[7] The group that used to perform for Kim Jong Il was disbanded shortly after his death in December 2011, according to the South Korean newspaper The Chosun Ilbo in April 2015. The newspaper said that members of Kim Jong Il's Kippumjo 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.[8][5]

Kim Jong-un

In 2015, Kim Jong Un, the son and successor to Kim Jong Il, was said to be seeking new members for his own Kippumjo after his father's group of women had been disbanded, according to the Chosun Ilbo.[8] The story also appeared in Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper.[5][9][10] The recruiting and training of Kippumjo in 2015 was administered by the Fifth Department of Staff of the Organic Direction of the Party (called 오과 Ogwa).

Structure

According to the British journalist Jasper Becker writing for the Asia Times in 2003, a former bodyguard has said that each pleasure group was composed of three teams:

  1. Manjokjo (Chosŏn'gŭl: 만족조; Hancha: 滿足組) – a satisfaction team (which provides sexual services)
  2. Haengbokjo (Chosŏn'gŭl: 행복조; Hancha: 幸福組) – a happiness team (which provides massages)
  3. Gamujo (Chosŏn'gŭl: 가무조; Hancha: 歌舞組) – a dancing and singing team [11]

Kippumjo is briefly discussed in the 2009 book Nothing to Envy by US journalist Barbara Demick. The book is based on interviews with North Korean defectors. According to Demick, girls from throughout the country were recruited to be Kippumjo members according to government criteria.[12] Suki Kim, a Korean American journalist who has lived undercover in North Korea, wrote in 2014 that one of the criteria was that they had to be virgins.[13] 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.[4] Once recruited, members of the Kippumjo underwent extensive training, sometimes abroad, according to Mi-Hyang.[1]

Martin adds that women retired from Kippumjo at 22 and married members of the country's elite.[4] In the 2014 memoir of defector Jang Jin-sung, Dear Leader: Poet, Spy, Escapee – A Look Inside North Korea, Jang writes of the Kippumjo 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."[1] Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper reported in 2015 that many Kippumjo members were retired in their 20s and married military officers who were seeking wives.[5]

See also

Notes
  1. Fernando, Gavin (29 April 2016). "The secret sex parties of North Korea's elite". News.com.au.
  2. Lee, Sunny (28 January 2010). "'Pleasure squad' defector sheds light on life of Kim Jong Il". No. World. The National. Archived from the original on 13 April 2012. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
  3. Fifield, Anna (8 January 2016). "What do we know about Kim Jong Un? Very little. That makes this guy an expert". Washington Post. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  4. Yoel, Sano (June 4, 2005). "The Kims' North Korea: Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty by Bradley K Martin". Book review. Asia Times. Archived from the original on 24 February 2017. Retrieved 2007-02-08.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  5. "North Korea reportedly recruiting women to joint 'pleasure squad' for Kim Jong Un". Fox News. FoxNews.com. 3 April 2015. Archived from the original on 3 May 2017. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  6. Jung Soon-Young (2003-07-02). "성적 유린 자행되는 북녘 음지의 현실" [The Reality of the Shadows of the North where Sexual Abuse is Perpetrated]. sisafocus (in Korean).
  7. Yong, Lee Sang (26 September 2013). "North in Ri Scandal Damage Control". Seoul, South Korea: Daily NK. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
  8. "Kim Jong-un Picks New Members for 'Pleasure Squad'". The Chosun Ilbo. 1 April 2015. Archived from the original on 27 April 2017.
  9. Buchanan, Rose Troup (2 April 2015). "Kim Jong-un reinstates 'pleasure troupe' harem of young women". The Independent. Archived from the original on 17 December 2015. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
  10. Doré, Louis (30 April 2016). "Kim Jong-un is recruiting a 'pleasure squad' of teenage girls". indy100. Archived from the original on 3 May 2016. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  11. Becker, Jasper (October 11, 2003). "North Korea: At Home With the Kims". Asia Times. Archived from the original on 2007-06-01. Retrieved 2007-02-08.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  12. Demick, Barbara (2009). Nothing to Envy; Ordinary Lives in North Korea. Spiegel and Grau. ISBN 978-0-385-52390-5.
  13. Kim, Suki (14 October 2014). Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite. New York: Crown Publishing Group. p. 129. ISBN 978-0307720658.

References
  • Martin, Bradley K. (2004). Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty. New York, New York, United States: Thomas Dunne Books. Hardcover: ISBN 978-0-312-32221-2; Paperback: ISBN 978-0-312-32322-6.
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