Day of the Shining Star
Kim Jong-il was born in February 1941 to Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-suk in Siberia in the Russian Federal Republic, Soviet Union where his father had been in exile because of his guerilla activities. North Korean propaganda, however, dates Kim Jong-il's birth to 16 February 1942 and locates it at the Mount Paektu area in Korea, the mythical place of origin of the Korean people, where Kim Il-sung supposedly ran a guerilla camp. In reality, the guerillas were based in Manchuria at the time and Kim himself had been to the Soviet Far East before and after Kim Jong-il's birth.
Kim Sang-ok
Kim Sang-ok was born on March 15, 1920 in Tongyeong, Kyeongsangnam-do, Korea and died on October 31, 2004. Kim's sobriquet was Chojeong. During his life, Kim was repeatedly imprisoned for spreading anti-Japanese sentiments. In 1938, along with Kim Yongho and Ham Yunsu, Kim participated in the literary group that produced the magazine 'Barley', in which Kim published the poems "A Grain of Sand” (Moraeal) and "The Tea Room” (Dabang) in 1938. Following Korean Liberation, Kim taught at Masan High School, Busan Girls' High School, and Gyeongnam Girls' High School. He founded the Tongyeong Writers' Association in 1956.