North Korea video focuses on Kim's mother

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TOKYO, June 10 (UPI) -- The late mother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was the subject of lavish praise in a new video obtained by the Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun.

The newspaper was able to access the 90-minute video "The Mother of Great Military Chosun," which features Ko Young-hu in scenes with her young son in the 1980s or 1990s, and was apparently issued to senior North Korean military officials.

Ko, who died in 2004, was rarely seen in public, but she receives the type of lavish praise usually reserved for the late Kim Jong-Il and is referred to by the narrator as Kim's "most precious revolutionary comrade sent from heaven."

The Korea Daily said Sunday the video appears to be the latest step by Pyongyang to build up the public image and power of Kim Jong-un. Analysts noted that Ko was largely under the radar in the past, probably due to her Japanese heritage.

Ko was born and raised in Japan in 1953. She moved to North Korea in the 1960s and worked as a dancer until Kim Jong-Il spotted her in the 1970s and moved her in with him.

Kim and Ko were never married; however she was treated as North Korea's first lady and bore two other children along with Kim Jong-un, who stepped into his late father's leadership role after his death in December.