Kippumjo
Service organization for the men of the Kim Dynasty's leadership, formed by North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il and consisting only of unmarried virgins under the age of 25.
The Kippumjo (Korean: 기쁨조; translated as Pleasure Squad, Pleasure Brigade, or Pleasure Group), sometimes spelled Kippeumjo (also Gippumjo or Gippeumjo), is an unconfirmed collection of groups of approximately 2,000 women and girls reportedly maintained by the leader of North Korea for the purpose of providing entertainment, including that of a sexual nature, for high-ranking Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) officials and their families, as well as, occasionally, distinguished guests.
Etymology
The first two syllables of the name, kippum (기쁨), is a native Korean word meaning joy or happiness. The suffix jo (Korean: 조; Hanja: 組) is a Sino-Korean word which describes a group of people, roughly analogous to the terms "squad" or "team".
History
Kim Il Sung
A 2015 Fox News article, citing the South Korean newspaper The Chosun Ilbo, says that "pleasure squads" have reportedly existed since the administration of North Korea's first leader, Kim Il Sung. According to a 2003 article on the South Korean news website SisaFocus, it is said that the first group was recruited in 1978 by Ri Dong-ho, the First Vice Director of the United Front Department of the Workers' Party of Korea, for the purpose of entertaining Kim at the Munsu Chodaeso (문수 초대소; Munsu Guesthouse).
Bradley K Martin's 2004 book Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader is based on a combination of visits to North Korea, research and interviews with defectors carried out in the early 1990s. Martin writes that Kim Il Sung was not just interested in pleasure, but also in rejuvenating himself through absorbing a young virgin's ki, or life-force, during sex.
Kim Jong Il
There were rumors that Kim Il Sung's son and successor, Kim Jong Il, also maintained a Kippumjo, according to an unnamed North Korean defector reported in the online newspaper Daily NK in 2013. The group that used to perform for Kim Jong Il was disbanded shortly after his death in December 2011, according to The Chosun Ilbo in April 2015. The newspaper said that members of Kim Jong Il's Kippumjo were made to sign a pledge of secrecy in exchange for money and gifts.
“Kippumjo” enters the record as service organization for the men of the Kim Dynasty's leadership, formed by North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il and consisting only of unmarried virgins under the age of 25. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Kippumjo, Service and organization can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1061760. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2015, 2003, 1978 and 2004.
Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kippumjo” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.