{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Korean Messiah with Jonathan Cheng","description":"April 13, 2026 - Join us for a book talk with Jonathan Cheng, author of the new history book Korean Messiah, which explores \u201cthe rise of the Kim dynasty and its surprising ties to American Christianity.\u201d In the book, Cheng, who is The Wall Street Journal\u2019s current China bureau chief and former Korea bureau chief, documents the profusion and lasting impact of Christianity in North Korea\u2019s current capital of Pyongyang, which was once described as the \u201cJerusalem of the East.\u201d Based on letters, diaries, and archival materials, his book reveals how the Kim regime\u2019s personality cult \u201ctraces its roots back to the Christian fervor of post\u2013Civil War America.\u201d Barbara Demick, author of Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, joins the conversation as a discussant. She described the book as \u201cprovocative and fascinating\u2026 Jonathan Cheng shows how this country, more hostile to religion than any in the world, was built on a bedrock of Christianity by its founder Kim Il Sung, who discarded the evangelical faith of his family and harnessed its power to create a cult of personality that has endured into the third generation.\u201d The discussion is moderated by policy director Jonathan Corrado, and jointly produced by the Policy and the Arts and Culture teams. This program is made possible by the generous support of the Korea Foundation and our individual and corporate members.   This program is co-hosted by The Center for Korean Research at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University. For more information, please visit the link below: https:\/\/koreasociety.org\/policy-and-corporate-programs\/2112-korean-messiah ","author_name":"The Korea Society","author_url":"http:\/\/www.koreasociety.org","html":"