Why Kim Jong Un never talks about his mother - or her controversial bloodline

The story of the Koreas, according to popular belief, begins on Mount Paektu - a mountain located on the China-North Korea border that is said to be the birthplace of Dangun, the mythical founder of what became Korea's first kingdom. Thousands of years later, Kim Il Sung - the founder of North Korea - reportedly used the mountain as a hideout when fighting against the Japanese. His son, Kim Jong Il, was said to be born on those same sacred slopes - despite reports indicating he was in fact most likely born in Russia - and for decades since the mountain has been used to legitimise the Kim dynasty. "Kim Jong Un became heir in his 20s despite having no achievements, solely because of the Paektu bloodline," Ryu Hyun-woo, an exiled North Korea diplomat, wrote in his book, Kim Jong Un's Secret Vault. But the reality of Kim's maternal lineage paints a different picture. Hundreds of miles away from Mount Paektu lies the city of Osaka: Japan's historical capital, and the place where Kim's mother, Ko Yong Hui, was said to be born. From what biographers have pieced together, Ko was born in Osaka in 1952 to parents originally from Jeju Island, which sits off the southern coast of what is now South Korea. As residents of Japan, Ko's family were "Zainichi Koreans": immigrants during Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the peninsula. But when she was about 10 years old, Ko's family emigrated to North Korea. …