Believe that? A lot of North Koreans do. That is the official story one is taught from a child growing up in North Korea. By the time one gets to the University level, he is admitted to the "Kim Jong Il Department" of the school where what he was taught as a child is not finally re-worked for an adult mind, but is in fact reenforced!

Mt. Baekdu, long considered a holy mountain by ancient Koreans lost in their paganism, has been designated in our enlightened age as a "milyong," a secret camp, the holy birthplace of the son of North Korea's god Kim Il Sung. People are encouraged to visit this site as though it were sacred, though anti-religion is still the standard fare in textbooks too.

The truth is not quite so exciting. One can easily read the Russian records that show he was born in the Russian village of Vyatskoye. His father Kim Il Sung commanded the First Batallion of the Soviet 88th Brigade, a mix of Chinese and Korean exiles. Dad was there under extreme pressure from firepower of the Japanese forces. He was in fact retreating from Korea into the Soviet Union.

What do you do when those whom you trust tell you strange stories? Like, when son Kim was 4, he smeared a Japanese map with black ink, causing a huge rain to fall on Japan! Or how he could, by the touch of his hand, turn the sea into not only land but a paradise, kinda like North Korea is today.

Well it is greatly true that the Kims have made NK what it is today, but Son is not quite ready to admit to what it really is today...