Keum Suk Gendry-Kim: "I wanted to show Kim Jong-un without any prejudice."

BarcelonaKeum Suk Gendry-Kim (Goheung, 1971) is one of the most influential writers and illustrators in South Korean literature. Accustomed to working with reality, her graphic novels capture facts and testimonies from historical moments such as Grass (Reservoir Books, 2022), in which she collected the testimony of a Japanese army sex slave, and The wait (Reservoir Books, 2023), which narrated the plight of the more than 130,000 Koreans who were separated from their families during the war. Now, Gendry-Kim has focused on the current moment to send a message of peace between the two Koreas. The artist has just published My friend Kim Jong-un (Reservoir Books), translated by Yasmine Bonjoch Luna, a book that explores the figure of the dictator through interviews and meetings with people who knew him, or who were close to him. Taking advantage of his visit to Barcelona to present the novel, Keum Suk Gendry-Kim also participates in CCCB's Kosmopolis Festival with a talk this Thursday afternoon.

The spark that drove her to write this book came when she was living on Ganghwa Island, near the border with North Korea. "I lived every day in constant tension and nerves. I could really see the physical divide between the two Koreas. We heard simulated bombings, constantly saw army helicopters fly over, and for a time, there were sound amplifiers that served as provocation," Gendry-Kim recalls. The feeling of impending war was very tangible, and to confront it, she decided to write and try to get closer to the figure of Kim Jong-un. But the task was not easy, because there is not much public information about the dictator, nor are there accessible witnesses who can speak about it firsthand. "When I create, I like to interview people who have lived through certain events so I can put myself in their shoes, and also go to the places I talk about so I can see them with my own eyes. But in this case, it was quite difficult. It's impossible for me to do a direct interview with Kim Jong-un. I looked for people who knew him well and, within the stories," within the stories.

Critical voices and kind voices

The novel follows Gendry-Kim's quest to find all these testimonies and reflects on what they tell her, but also what they don't tell her because they can't or they don't want to put themselves in danger. One of them is a man who was a friend of Kim Jong-nam, Kim Jong-un's half-brother, who was assassinated in 2017 in Malaysia.He also managed to meet with former South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who during his term made Some steps to bring the two Koreas closer togetherSome of these conversations portray Kim Jong-un in a sympathetic light: some witnesses defend him, others describe him as "a politician who runs the country like a basketball coach," and others, on the other hand, are highly critical of the dictatorial regime. "Of course, Kim Jong-un is a dictator and has killed many people. Instead of expressing my opinions, what I tried to do was give a voice to the people I interviewed to show Kim Jong-un without any prejudice," says Gendry-Kim.

For the artist, the driving force behind the book was "to convey the message that a conversation between the two Koreas is necessary to move forward." Despite this intention, when the book was published in South Korea, it was not well received. "I received a lot of hateful comments and criticism. I was insulted on social media and in the press. But little by little, opinions changed, and some people also told me I was very brave to approach this issue from a different perspective," explains Gendry-Kim. The remaining task, she adds, would be getting the novel to North Korea, but right now she sees that as impossible: "All content from South Korea is absolutely prohibited in North Korea."