Kim Il-sung

born April 15, 1912, Man'gyŏndae, Korea

died July 8, 1994, P'yŏngyang

Communist leader of North Korea from 1948 until his death.

When Korea was effectively divided between a Soviet-occupied northern half and a U.S.-supported southern half at the end of World War II, Kim Il-sung helped establish a communist provisional government and became its first premier. He invaded South Korea in an attempt to reunify the country, but the subsequent Korean War ended without reunification. After the war, Kim introduced a philosophy of self-reliance (juche) under which North Korea tried to develop its economy with little help from foreign countries. His omnipresent personality cult enabled him to rule unchallenged for 46 years in one of the world's most isolated and repressive societies.

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▪ president of North Korea

original name  Kim Song Ju  

born April 15, 1912, Man'gyŏndae, near P'yŏngyang, Korea [now in North Korea]

died July 8, 1994, P'yŏngyang

      communist leader of North Korea from 1948 until his death in 1994. He was the nation's premier from 1948 to 1972, chairman of its dominant Korean Workers (Communist) Party from 1949, and president and head of state from 1972.

      Kim was the son of parents who fled to Manchuria in 1925 to escape the Japanese rule of Korea. He joined the Korean guerrilla resistance against the Japanese occupation in the 1930s and adopted the name of an earlier legendary Korean guerrilla fighter against the Japanese. Kim was noticed by the Soviet military authorities, who sent him to the Soviet Union for military and political training. There he joined the local Communist Party.

      During World War II, Kim led a Korean contingent as a major in the Soviet army. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, Korea was effectively divided between a Soviet-occupied northern half and a U.S.-supported southern half. At this time Kim returned with other Soviet-trained Koreans to establish a communist provisional government under Soviet auspices in what would become North Korea. He became the first premier of the newly formed Democratic People's Republic of Korea in 1948, and in 1949 he became chairman of the Korean Workers' (communist) Party. Hoping to reunify Korea by force, Kim launched an invasion of South Korea in 1950, thereby igniting the Korean War. His attempt to extend his rule there was repelled by U.S. troops and other UN forces, however, and it was only through massive Chinese support that he was able to repel a subsequent invasion of North Korea by UN forces.

      The Korean War ended in a stalemate in 1953. As head of state, Kim crushed the remaining domestic opposition and eliminated his last rivals for power within the Korean Workers' Party. He became his country's absolute ruler and set about transforming North Korea into an austere, militaristic, and highly regimented society devoted to the twin goals of industrialization and the reunification of the Korean Peninsula under North Korean rule. Kim introduced a philosophy of juche, or “self-reliance,” under which North Korea tried to develop its economy with little or no help from foreign countries. North Korea's state-run economy grew rapidly in the 1950s and '60s but eventually stagnated, with shortages of food occurring by the early '90s. The omnipresent personality cult sponsored by Kim was part of a highly effective propaganda system that enabled him to rule unchallenged for 46 years over one of the world's most isolated and repressive societies. In his foreign policy he cultivated close ties with both the Soviet Union and China and remained consistently hostile to South Korea and the United States. While retaining control of the Korean Workers' Party, Kim relinquished the office of premier and was elected president of North Korea in December 1972. In 1980 he raised his eldest son, Kim Jong Il, to high posts in the party and the military, in effect designating the younger Kim as his heir.

      The dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s left China as North Korea's sole major ally, and even China cultivated more cordial relations with South Korea. Meanwhile, North Korean policy toward the South alternated between provocation and overtures of peace throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. Relations improved somewhat with Seoul's hosting of the Olympic Games in 1988, to which the North sent a team of athletes. In 1991 the two countries were simultaneously admitted to the United Nations, and a series of prime-ministerial talks produced two agreements between North and South Korea: one that pledged nonaggression, reconciliation, exchanges, and cooperation, and a joint declaration on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. The agreements went into effect in February 1992, although little of substance came of them, especially after the North became embroiled in controversy over its nuclear program and suspended all contacts with the South in early 1993.

      South Korean president Kim Young Sam was scheduled to travel to P'yŏngyang in July 1994 for an unprecedented summit between the two Korean leaders, but Kim Il-sung died before the meeting could take place. Kim Jong Il ascended to power after his father's death, and in the revised constitution that was promulgated in 1998, the office of president was written out and the elder Kim was written in as “eternal president of the republic.”

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