He held the posts of thePremier from 1948 to 1972 andPresident from 1972 to 1994. He wasthe leader of theWorkers' Party of Korea (WPK) from 1949 to 1994 (titled as chairman from 1949 to 1966 and as general secretary after 1966). Coming to power after the end ofJapanese rule over Korea in 1945 following Japan's surrender inWorld War II, he authorized the invasion ofSouth Korea in 1950, triggering an intervention in defense of South Korea by the United Nations led by the United States. Following the military stalemate in theKorean War,a ceasefire was signed in July 1953. He was the third-longest serving non-royal head of state/government in the 20th century, in office for more than 45 years.
Under his leadership, North Korea was established as atotalitariansocialistpersonalist dictatorship with acentrally planned economy. It had very close political and economic relations with theSoviet Union. By the 1960s, North Korea had a slightly higherstandard of living than the South, which was suffering from political chaos and economic crises. The situation was reversed in the 1970s, as a newly stable South Korea became an economic powerhouse which was fueled by Japanese and American investment, military aid and internal economic development, while North Korea's economy stagnated and then collapsed.[9] Differences emerged between North Korea and the Soviet Union; chief among them was Kim Il Sung's philosophy ofJuche, which focused onKorean nationalism andself-reliance. Despite this, the country received funds, subsidies and aid from the USSR and theEastern Bloc until thedissolution of the USSR in 1991.
Kim was born Kim Song Ju to fatherKim Hyong Jik and motherKang Pan Sok. Kim had two younger brothers,Kim Chol Ju andKim Yong-ju.[10]: 3 Kim Chol Ju died while fighting theJapanese and Kim Yong-ju came to be involved in the North Korean government; he was considered as an heir to his brother before he fell out of favor.[11][12]
1926 portrait of Kim from Whasung Military Academy, published in his autobiographyWith the Century
Kim's family, part of theJeonju Kim clan, is said to have originated inJeonju,North Jeolla Province. In 1860, his great-grandfather, Kim Ŭngu, settled in theMangyongdae neighborhood of Pyongyang. Kim was reportedly born in the small village ofMangyungbong (then called Namni) near Pyongyang on 15 April 1912.[13][14]: 12 According to a 1964 semi-official biography of Kim, he was born in his mother's home in Chingjong, and later grew up in Mangyungbong.[15]: 73
1927 portrait of Kim from Yuwen Middle School, published in his autobiographyWith the Century
According to Kim, his family was always a step away from poverty. Kim said that he was raised by a very activePresbyterian Christian family. His maternal grandfather was a Protestantminister, and his father had gone to a missionary school and he was also an elder in the Presbyterian Church.[16][17] According to an official North Korean government account, Kim's family participated in anti-Japanese activities and fled toManchuria in 1920. Like most Korean families, they resented the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula (which had begun on 29 August 1910).[14]: 12 Japanese repression of Korean opposition was harsh, resulting in the arrest and detention of more than 52,000 Korean citizens in 1912 alone.[14]: 13 This repression had forced many Korean families to flee the Korean peninsula, and settle in Manchuria.[18]
Nevertheless, Kim's parents, especially his mother, played a role in the anti-Japanese struggle that was sweeping the peninsula.[14]: 16 Their exact involvement – whether their cause was missionary, nationalist, or both – is unclear.[19]: 53
Members of the 88th Separate Rifle Brigade, an international military unit of the Red Army, in 1943. Kim is sitting in the front row, second from the right.
North Korean government sources credit Kim with founding theDown-with-Imperialism Union in 1926.[20] He attended Whasung Military Academy in 1926, but found the academy's training methods outdated and quit it in 1927. He then attendedYuwen Middle School inChina'sJilin province until 1930,[21] when he rejected the feudal traditions of older-generation Koreans and became interested incommunist ideologies. Seventeen-year-old Kim became the youngest member of theKorean Communist Youth Association [ko], an undergroundMarxist organization with fewer than twenty members. It was led by Hŏ So (허소;許笑), who belonged to theSouth Manchurian Communist Youth Association [ko]. The police discovered the group three weeks after it formed in 1929, and jailed Kim for several months. Kim's formal education ended after his arrest and imprisonment.[19]: 52 [10]: 7
In 1931, Kim joined theChinese Communist Party (CCP) – theCommunist Party of Korea had been founded in 1925, but had been thrown out of theCommunist International in the early 1930s for being too nationalist. He joined various anti-Japaneseguerrilla groups in northern China. Feelings against the Japanese ran high in Manchuria, but as of May 1930 the Japanese had not yet occupied Manchuria. On 30 May 1930, a spontaneous violent uprising in eastern Manchuria arose in which peasants attacked some local villages in the name of resisting "Japanese aggression".[22] The authorities easily suppressed this impromptu uprising. Because of the attack, the Japanese began to plan an occupation of Manchuria.[23] In a speech Kim allegedly made before a meeting of Young Communist League delegates on 20 May 1931 in Yenchi County in Manchuria,[24] he warned the delegates against such unplanned uprisings as the 30 May 1930 uprising in eastern Manchuria.[25]
Four months later, on 18 September 1931, the "Mukden Incident" occurred, in which a relatively weak dynamite explosive charge went off near a Japanese railroad in the town of Mukden in Manchuria. Although no damage occurred, the Japanese used the incident as an excuse to send armed forces into Manchuria and to appoint apuppet government.[26] In 1935, Kim became a member of theNortheast Anti-Japanese United Army, a guerrilla group led by the CCP.[27] Kim was appointed the same year to serve as political commissar for the 3rd detachment of the second division, consisting of around 160 soldiers.[19]: 53 Here Kim met the man who would become his mentor as a communist, Wei Zhengmin, Kim's immediate superior officer, who at the time was chairman of the Political Committee of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army. Wei reported directly toKang Sheng, a high-ranking party member close toMao Zedong inYan'an, until Wei's death on 8 March 1941.[10]: 8–10
Kim's actions during theMinsaengdan incident helped solidify his leadership.[28] The CCP operating in Manchuria had become suspicious that any Korean could secretly be a member of the pro-Japanese and anti-communist Minsaengdan.[29] A purge resulted: over 1,000 Koreans were expelled from the CCP, including Kim (who was arrested in late 1933 and exonerated in early 1934), and 500 were killed.[29] Kim Il Sung's memoirs – and those of the guerrillas who fought alongside him – cite Kim's seizing and burning the suspect files of the Purge Committee as key to solidifying his leadership.[28] After the destruction of the suspect files and the rehabilitation of suspects, those who had fled the purge rallied around Kim.[28] As historian Suzy Kim summarizes, Kim Il Sung "emerged from the purge as a definitive leader, not only for the bold move but also for his compassion."[28]
In 1935, Kim took the nameKim Il Sung, meaning "Kim become the sun".[30]: 30 Kim was appointed commander of the 6th division in 1937, at the age of 24, controlling a few hundred men in a group that came to be known as "Kim Il Sung's division". On 4 June 1937, he led 200 guerrillas in araid on Poch'onbo, destroying the local government offices and setting fire to a Japanese police station and post office.[31] The success of the raid demonstrated Kim's talents as a military leader.[31] Even more significant than the military success itself was the political coordination and organization between the guerrillas and the Korean Fatherland Restoration Association, an anti-Japanese united front group based in Manchuria.[31] These accomplishments would grant Kim some measure of fame among Chinese guerrillas, and North Korean biographies would later exploit it as a great victory for Korea.
For their part, the Japanese regarded Kim as one of the most effective and popular Korean guerrilla leaders ever.[32]: 160–161 [33] He appeared on Japanese wanted lists as the "Tiger".[34] The Japanese "Maeda Unit" was sent to hunt him in February 1940.[34] Later in 1940, the Japanese kidnapped a woman named Kim Hye-sun, believed to have been Kim Il Sung's first wife. After using her as a hostage to try to convince the Korean guerrillas to surrender, she was killed. Kim was appointed commander of the 2nd operational region for the 1st Army, but by the end of 1940 he was the only 1st Army leader still alive. Pursued by Japanese troops, in late 1940, Kim and a dozen of his fighters escaped by crossing theAmur River into the Soviet Union.[19]: 53–54 Kim was sent to a camp atVyatskoye nearKhabarovsk, where the Soviets retrained the Korean communist guerrillas. In August 1942, Kim and his army were assigned to a special unit known as the88th Separate Rifle Brigade, which belonged to theSoviet Red Army. Kim's immediate superior wasZhou Baozhong.[35][36] Kim became a Major in the Soviet Red Army[10]: 50 and served in it until the end ofWorld War II in 1945.[37]
The Soviet Union declaredwar on Japan on 8 August 1945, and the Red Army entered Pyongyang on 24 August 1945. Stalin had instructedLavrentiy Beria to recommend a communist leader for theSoviet-occupied territories and Beria met Kim several times before recommending him to Stalin.[13][38][39]
Kim arrived in the Korean port ofWonsan on 19 September 1945 after 26 years in exile.[30]: 51 According to Leonid Vassin, an officer with the SovietMVD, Kim was essentially "created from zero". For one, his Korean was marginal at best; he only had eight years of formal education, all of it in Chinese. He needed considerable coaching to read a speech (which the MVD prepared for him) at a Communist Party congress three days after he arrived.[40]: 50
In December 1945, the Soviets installed Kim as first secretary of theNorth Korean Branch Bureau of theCommunist Party of Korea.[30]: 56 Originally, the Soviets preferredCho Man-sik to lead apopular front government, but Cho refused to support a UN-backed trusteeship and clashed with Kim.[41] GeneralTerentii Shtykov, who led the Soviet occupation of northern Korea, supported Kim overPak Hon-yong to lead theProvisional People's Committee for North Korea on 8 February 1946.[42] As chairman of the committee, Kim was "the top Korean administrative leader in the North," though he was stillde facto subordinate to General Shtykov until the Chinese intervention in the Korean War.[39][30]: 56 [42]
On 1 March 1946, while giving a speech to commemorate an anniversary of theMarch First Movement, a member of the anti-communist terrorist group theWhite Shirts Society attempted to assassinate Kim by lobbing a grenade at his podium. However, Soviet military officerYakov Novichenko grabbed the grenade and absorbed the blast with his body, leaving Kim and other bystanders unharmed.[43][44][45]
To solidify his control, Kim established theKorean People's Army (KPA), aligned with the Communist Party, and he recruited a cadre of guerrillas and former soldiers who had gained combat experience in battles against the Japanese and later againstNationalist Chinese troops.[46] Using Soviet advisers and equipment, Kim constructed a large army skilled in infiltration tactics and guerrilla warfare. Prior to Kim's invasion of the South in 1950, which triggered the Korean War, Stalin equipped the KPA with modern, Soviet-built medium tanks, trucks, artillery, and small arms. Kim also formed an air force, equipped at first with Soviet-built propeller-driven fighters and attack aircraft. Later, North Korean pilot candidates were sent to the Soviet Union and China to train inMiG-15 jet aircraft at secret bases.[47]
Several sources claim the name "Kim Il Sung" had previously been used by a prominent early leader of theKorean resistance,Kim Kyung-cheon.[40]: 44 The Soviet officerGrigory Mekler, who worked with Kim during theSoviet occupation, said that Kim took this name from a former commander who had died.[48] However, historianAndrei Lankov has argued that this is unlikely to be true. Several witnesses knew Kim before and after his time in the Soviet Union, including his superior,Zhou Baozhong, who dismissed the claim of a "second" Kim in his diaries.[19]: 55 HistorianBruce Cumings pointed out that Japanese officers from theKwantung Army have attested to his fame as a resistance figure.[32]: 160–161
On August 12, 2009,Yonhap News Agency revealed thatU.S. Army Military Government in Korea had already acknowledged that Kim Il Sung was in fact pretended by his nephew Kim Song-ju.[49] In 2019, investigative journalistAnnie Jacobsen published the bookSurprise, Kill, Vanish, which further expounded that the U.S.Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) once concluded that Kim Il Sung was ablackmailed imposter operated by the Soviet Union.[50] The dossier titled "The Identity of Kim Il Sung" ascribed the leader's true identity to Kim Song-ju, an orphaned child caught stealing money from a classmate who killed his classmate to avoid embarrassment. The dossier alleges Soviet intelligence officers identified the opportunity to blackmail Kim Song-ju into leading theNorth Korean Communist Party as a Soviet puppet under the name of the real war hero Kim-Il Sung, whom Stalin had disappeared. Jacobsen also writes that the CIA learned "specific instructions [were] given to the leaders of the regime that there should be no questions raised about Kim [Il Sung]'s identity."[50]
Historians generally accept the view that, while Kim's exploits were exaggerated by thepersonality cult which was built around him, he was a significant guerrilla leader.[51][52][53]
On 12 October, the Soviet Union recognized Kim's government as the sovereign government of the entire peninsula, including the south.[55] The Communist Party merged with the New People's Party of Korea to form the Workers' Party of North Korea, with Kim as vice-chairman. In 1949, the Workers' Party of North Korea merged with itssouthern counterpart to become theWorkers' Party of Korea (WPK) with Kim asparty chairman.[56] By 1949, Kim and the communists had consolidated their rule in North Korea.[40]: 53 Around this time, Kim began promoting an intensepersonality cult. The first of many statues of him appeared, and he began calling himself "Great Leader".[40]: 53
In February 1946, Kim Il Sung decided to introduce a number of reforms. Over 50% of thearable land was redistributed, an 8-hour work day was proclaimed and allheavy industry was to benationalized.[10]: 68 There were improvements in the health of the population after henationalized healthcare and made it available to all citizens.[57]
Archival material suggests[58][59][60] that North Korea's decision to invade South Korea was Kim's initiative, not a Soviet one. Evidence suggests thatSoviet intelligence, through its espionage sources in the US government and BritishSIS, had obtained information on the limitations of US atomic bomb stockpiles as well as defense program cuts, leading Stalin to conclude that theTruman administration would not intervene in Korea.[61]
China acquiesced only reluctantly to the idea of Korean reunification after being told by Kim that Stalin had approved the action.[58][59][60] The Chinese did not provide North Korea with direct military support (other than logistics channels) until United Nations troops, largely US forces, had nearly reached theYalu River late in 1950. At the outset of the war in June and July, North Korean forces capturedSeoul and occupied most of the South, save for a small section of territory in the southeast region of the South that was called thePusan Perimeter. But in September, the North Koreans were driven back by the US-led counterattack that started with the UN landing inIncheon, followed by a combined South Korean-US-UN offensive from the Pusan Perimeter. By October, UN forces had retaken Seoul and invaded the North to reunify the country under the South. On 19 October, US and South Korean troops captured Pyongyang, forcing Kim and his government to flee north, first toSinuiju and eventually intoKanggye.[62][63]
Kim's official portrait in 1950
On 25 October 1950, after sending various warnings of their intent to intervene if UN forces did not halt their advance,[64]: 23 Chinese troops in the thousands crossed the Yalu River and entered the war as allies of the KPA. There were nevertheless tensions between Kim and the Chinese government. Kim had been warned of the likelihood of an amphibious landing at Incheon, which was ignored. There was also a sense that the North Koreans had paid little in war compared to the Chinese who had fought for their country for decades against foes with better technology.[64]: 335–336 The UN troops were forced to withdraw and Chinese troops retook Pyongyang in December and Seoul in January 1951. In March, UN forces began a new offensive, retaking Seoul and advanced north once again halting at a point just north of the38th Parallel. After a series of offensives and counter-offensives by both sides, followed by a grueling period of largely statictrench warfare that lasted from the summer of 1951 to July 1953, the front was stabilized along what eventually became the permanent "Armistice Line" of 27 July 1953. Over 2.5 million people died during the Korean War.[65]
Chinese and Russian documents from that time reveal that Kim became increasingly desperate to establish a truce, since the likelihood that further fighting would successfully unify Korea under his rule became more remote with the UN and US presence. Kim also resented the Chinese taking over the majority of the fighting in his country, with Chinese forces stationed at the center of the front line, and the Korean People's Army being mostly restricted to the coastal flanks of the front.[66]
Kim on a 1956 visit to East Germany, chatting with painterOtto Nagel and Prime MinisterOtto Grotewohl
With the end of the Korean War, despite the failure to unify Korea under his rule, Kim Il Sung proclaimed the war a victory in the sense that he had remained in power in the north. However, the three-year war left North Korea devastated, and Kim immediately embarked on a large reconstruction effort. He launched a five-year national economic plan (akin toSoviet Union's five-year plans) to establish acommand economy, with all industry owned by the state and all agriculturecollectivized. The economy was focused on heavy industry and arms production. By the 1960s, North Korea enjoyed a standard of living which was higher than the standard of living in the South, which wasfraught with political instability and economic crises.[67][68][69]
In the ensuing years, Kim established himself as an independent leader ofinternational communism. In 1956, he joined Mao in the "anti-revisionist" camp, which did not acceptNikita Khrushchev's program ofde-Stalinization, yet he did not become aMaoist himself. At the same time, he consolidated his power over theKorean communist movement. Rival leaders were eliminated.Pak Hon-yong, leader of the Korean Communist Party, was purged and executed in 1955.Choe Chang-ik appears to have been purged as well.[70][71] Yi Sang-Cho, North Korea's ambassador to the Soviet Union and a critic of Kim who defected to the Soviet Union in 1956, was declared a factionalist and a traitor.[72] The 1955Juche speech, which stressed Korean independence, debuted in the context of Kim's power struggle against leaders such as Pak, who had Soviet backing. This was little noticed at the time until state media started talking about it in 1963.[73][74] Kim developed the policy and ideology ofJuche in opposition to the idea of North Korea as asatellite state of China or the Soviet Union.
Kim transformed North Korea into what Wonjun Song and Joseph Wright consider a personalist dictatorship, where power was centralized in Kim personally.[75]Kim Il Sung's cult of personality had initially been criticized by some members of the government. The North Korean ambassador to the USSR,Li Sangjo, a member of theYan'an faction, reported that it had become a criminal offense to so much as write on Kim's picture in a newspaper and that he had been elevated to the status ofMarx,Lenin,Mao, andStalin in the communist pantheon. He also charged Kim with rewriting history so it would appear as if his guerrilla faction had single-handedly liberated Korea from the Japanese, completely ignoring the assistance of theChinese People's Volunteers. In addition, Li stated that in the process of agricultural collectivization, grain was being forcibly confiscated from the peasants, leading to "at least 300 suicides" and he also stated that Kim made nearly all major policy decisions and appointments himself. Li reported that over 30,000 people were in prison for completely unjust and arbitrary reasons which were as trivial as not printing Kim Il Sung's portrait on sufficient quality paper or using newspapers with his picture to wrap parcels. Grain confiscation and tax collection were also conducted with force, which consisted of violence, beatings, and threats of imprisonment.[76]
During the 1956August faction incident, Kim Il Sung successfully resisted Soviet and Chinese efforts to depose him in favor of pro-Soviet Koreans or Koreans who belonged to the pro-Chinese Yan'an faction.[77][78] The last Chinese troops withdrew from the country in October 1958, which is the consensus as the latest date when North Korea became effectively independent, though some scholars believe that the 1956 August incident demonstrated North Korea's independence.[77][78]
During his rise and his consolidation of power, Kim created thesongbun, acaste system in which the North Korean people were divided into three groups. Each person was classified as belonging to the "core", "wavering", or "hostile" class, based on his or her political, social, and economic background—this caste system persists today.[79][80] Songbun was used to decide all aspects of a person's existence in North Korean society, including access to education, housing, employment, food rationing, ability to join the ruling party, and even where a person was allowed to live. Large numbers of people from the so-called hostile class, which included intellectuals, land owners, and former supporters ofJapan's occupying government duringWorld War II, were forcibly relocated to the country's isolated and impoverished northern provinces. Whenyears of famine ravaged the country in the 1990s, those people who lived in its marginalized and remote communities were hardest hit.[81]
During his rule,North Korea's government was responsible for widespreadhuman rights abuses.[82][83][84] Kim Il Sung punished real and perceived dissent throughpurges which includedpublic executions andenforced disappearances. Not only dissenters but their entire extended families werepunished by being reduced to the lowest songbun rank, and many of them were also incarcerated in a secret system of political prison camps. These camps orkwanliso, a part of Kim's vast network of abusivepenal and forced labor institutions, were fenced and heavily guarded colonies which were located in mountainous areas of the country, where prisoners were forced to perform back-breaking labor such as logging, mining, and picking crops. Most of the prisoners were incarcerated in these camps for their entire lives, and inside the camps, their living and working conditions were usually deadly. For example, prisoners were nearly starved to death, they were denied medical care, they were denied proper housing and clothes, they were subjected to sexual violence, they were regularly mistreated, and they weretortured and executed by guards.[81]
Kim greets visiting Romanian PresidentNicolae Ceaușescu in Pyongyang, 1971. Kim's tumor had been edited out by the North Korean censors.
Despite his opposition to de-Stalinization, Kim never officially severed relations with the Soviet Union, and he did not take part in theSino-Soviet split. After Khrushchev was replaced byLeonid Brezhnev in 1964, Kim's relations with the Soviet Union became closer. At the same time, Kim was increasingly alienated by Mao's unstable style of leadership, especially during theCultural Revolution in the late 1960s. Kim in turn was denounced by Mao'sRed Guards.[85] At the same time, Kim reinstated relations with most of Eastern Europe's communist countries, primarily withErich Honecker'sEast Germany andNicolae Ceaușescu'sRomania. Ceaușescu was heavily influenced by Kim's ideology, and thepersonality cult whichgrew around him in Romania was very similar to that of Kim.[86]
In the 1960s, Kim became impressed with the efforts ofNorth Vietnamese LeaderHo Chi Minh toreunifyVietnam through guerrilla warfare and thought that something similar might be possible in Korea.[87]: 30–31 Infiltration and subversion efforts were thus greatly stepped up against US forces and the leadership in South Korea.[87]: 32–33 These efforts culminated in anattempt to storm the Blue House and assassinate PresidentPark Chung Hee.[87]: 32 North Korean troops thus took a much more aggressive stance toward US forces in and around South Korea, engaging US Army troops infire-fights along the Demilitarized Zone. The 1968 capture of the crew of the spy shipUSSPueblo was a part of this campaign.[87]: 33
Albania'sEnver Hoxha (another independent-minded communist leader) was a fierce enemy of the country and Kim Il Sung, writing in June 1977 that "genuineMarxist-Leninists" will understand that the "ideology which is guiding the Korean Workers' Party and the Communist Party of China ... isrevisionist" and later that month he added that "in Pyongyang, I believe that evenTito will be astonished at the proportions of the cult of his host [Kim Il sung], which has reached a level unheard of anywhere else, either in past or present times, let alone in a country which calls itself socialist."[88][89] He further claimed that "the leadership of the Communist Party of China has betrayed [the working people]. In Korea, too, we can say that the leadership of the Korean Workers' Party is wallowing in the same waters" and claimed that Kim Il Sung was begging for aid from other countries, especially among the Eastern Bloc andnon-aligned countries likeYugoslavia. As a result,relations between North Korea and Albania would remain cold and tense right up until Hoxha's death in 1985.
Although a resolute anti-communist,Zaire'sMobutu Sese Seko was also heavily influenced by Kim's style of rule.[90]
The North Korean government's practice of abducting foreign nationals, such asSouth Koreans,Japanese,Chinese,Thais, andRomanians, is another practice of Kim Il Sung which persists to the present day.[citation needed] Kim Il Sung planned these operations to seize persons who could be used to support North Korea's overseas intelligence operations, or those who had technical skills to maintain the socialist state's economic infrastructure in farms, construction, hospitals, and heavy industry. According to the Korean War Abductees Family Union (KWAFU), those abducted by North Korea after the war included 2,919 civil servants, 1,613 police, 190 judicial officers and lawyers, and 424 medical practitioners. In thehijacking and seizure of Korean Airlines flight YS-11 in 1969 by North Korean agents, the pilots and mechanics, and others with specialized skills, were the only ones never permitted to return to South Korea. The total number of foreign abductees and disappeared is still unknown but is estimated to include more than 200,000 people. The vast majority of disappearances occurred or were linked to the Korean War, but hundreds of South Koreans and Japanese people were abducted between the 1960s and 1980s. A number of South Koreans and nationals of the People's Republic of China have also been apparently abducted in the 2000s and 2010s. At least 100,000 people remain disappeared.[81]
TheConstitution of North Korea was proclaimed on December 27, 1972, which created the position of thePresident of North Korea. Kim gave up his former Premier of the Cabinet position, which he had held since 1948, and became instead president, after the1972 North Korean parliamentary election. On 14 April 1975, North Korea discontinued most formal use ofits traditional units andadopted themetric system.[91] In 1980, he decided that his son Kim Jong Il would succeed him, and increasingly delegated the running of the government to him. TheKim family was supported by the army, due to Kim Il Sung's revolutionary record and the support of the veteran defense minister,O Chin-u. At theSixth Party Congress in October 1980, Kim publicly designated his son as his successor. In 1986, a rumor spread that Kim had been assassinated, making the concern for Jong-il's ability to succeed his father actual. Kim dispelled the rumors, however, by making a series of public appearances. It has been argued, however, that the incident helped establish the order of succession – the first apparent patrilineal in a communist state – which eventually would occur upon Kim Il Sung's death in 1994.[92]
From about this time, North Korea encountered increasing economic difficulties. South Korea became an economic powerhouse fueled by Japanese and American investment, military aid, and internal economic development, while North Koreastagnated and thendeclined in the 1980s.[93][94] The practical effect ofJuche was to cut the country off from virtually all foreign trade in order to make it entirelyself-reliant. Theeconomic reforms ofDeng Xiaoping inChina from 1979 onward meant that trade with the moribund economy of North Korea held decreasing interest for China. TheRevolutions of 1989 inEastern Europe and thedissolution of the Soviet Union, from 1989 to 1992, completed North Korea's virtual isolation. These events led to mounting economic difficulties because Kim refused to issue any economic or political reforms.[95]
Kim's tumor is noticeable on the back of his head in this rare newsreel still image during a diplomatic meeting between him and Chinese Communist Party ChairmanMao Zedong in Beijing, 1970.
As he aged, starting in the 1970s, Kim developed acalcinosis[citation needed] growth on the right side of the back of his neck. It was long believed that its close proximity to his brain and spinal cord made it inoperable. However, Juan Reinaldo Sánchez, a defected bodyguard forFidel Castro who met Kim in 1986 wrote later that it was Kim's own paranoia that prevented it from being operated on.[96] Because of its unappealing nature, North Korean reporters and photographers were required to photograph Kim while standing slightly to his left in order to hide the growth from official photographs and newsreels. Hiding the growth became increasingly difficult as the growth reached the size of abaseball by the late 1980s.[97]: xii
A photo of Kim Il Sung, who had mobility problems at this time, and his entourage being closely guarded by security in Pyongyang, North Korea, 1989.
To ensure a full succession of leadership to his son and designated successor Kim Jong Il, Kim turned over his chairmanship of North Korea'sNational Defense Commission – the body mainly responsible for control of the armed forces as well as the supreme commandership of the country's now million-man strong military force, the Korean People's Army – to his son in 1991 and 1993. In early 1994, Kim began investing in nuclear power to offset energy shortages brought on by economic problems. This was thefirst of many "nuclear crises". On 19 May 1994, Kim ordered spent fuel to be unloaded from the already disputed nuclear research facility inYongbyon. Despite repeated chiding from Western nations, Kim continued to conductnuclear research and carry on with the uranium enrichment program. In June 1994, formerUS PresidentJimmy Carter traveled to Pyongyang in an effort to persuade Kim to negotiate with theClinton administration over its nuclear program.[98] To the astonishment of the United States and theInternational Atomic Energy Agency, Kim agreed to halt his nuclear research program and seemed to be embarking upon a new opening to the West.[99]
Kim Il Sung's 80th birthday ceremony with international guests, April 1992
Shortly beforenoon on 7 July 1994, Kim Il Sung collapsed from aheart attack at his residence inHyangsan,North Pyongan. After the heart attack, Kim Jong Il ordered the team of doctors who were constantly at his father's side to leave and arranged for the country's best doctors to be flown in from Pyongyang. After several hours, the doctors from Pyongyang arrived, but despite their efforts to save him, Kim Il Sung died at 02:00 amPST on 8 July 1994, aged 82.[100] After the traditionalConfucian mourning period, his death was declared 34 hours later.[101]
Kim Il Sung's death resulted in nationwide mourning and a ten-day mourning period was declared by Kim Jong Il. His funeral was scheduled to be held on 17 July 1994 in Pyongyang but was delayed until 19 July.[102] It was attended by hundreds of thousands of people who were flown into the city from all over North Korea.[citation needed] Kim Il Sung's body was placed in a publicmausoleum at theKumsusan Palace of the Sun, where his preserved and embalmed body lies under a glass coffin for viewing purposes. His head rests on a traditional Korean pillow and he is covered by the flag of the Workers' Party of Korea. Newsreel video of the funeral at Pyongyang was broadcast on several networks and can now be found on various websites.[103] The position ofPresident of North Korea was not inherited by Kim Jong Il, and in a 1998 amendment, the preamble of the country's constitution referred to Kim Il Sung as the "Eternal President".[104]
Kim Il Sung's most notable contribution to political theory is his conceptualization of theJuche idea, originally described as a variant ofMarxism–Leninism.
In his writings, Kim engaged with Karl Marx's metaphor that religion is theopium of the people. He did so both in the context of responding to his comrades who objected to working with religious groups (Chonbulygo andChondoism, respectively).[105] In the first instance, Kim replies that a person is "mistaken" if he or she believes Marx's proposition regarding "opium of the people" can be applied in all instances, explaining that if a religion "prays for dealing out divine punishment to Japan and blessing the Korean nation" then it is a "patriotic religion" and its believers are patriots.[105] In the second, Kim states that Marx's metaphor "must not be construed radically and unilaterally" because Marx was warning against "the temptation of a religious mirage and not opposing believers in general."[105] Because the communist movement in Korea was fighting a struggle for "national salvation" against Japan, Kim writes that anyone with a similar agenda can join the struggle and that "even a religionist ... must be enrolled in our ranks without hesitation."[105]
Kim Il Sung is believed to have married 3 times, although virtually nothing is known about his first wife.[106] His second wife, Kim Jong Suk (1917–1949),[2] gave birth to two sons and one daughter before her death in childbirth during the delivery of a stillborn girl. Kim Jong Il was his oldest son.[2] The other son (Kim Man-il,[2] or Shaura Kim) of this marriage died in 1947[2] in a swimming accident.[citation needed] A daughter,Kim Kyong-hui, was born in 1946.[2]
Kim marriedKim Song-ae (1924–2014) in 1952, and had four children with her: Kim Kyong Suk (1951–), Kim Kyong Jin (1952–),Kim Pyong Il (1954–), Kim Yong Il (1955–2000; not to be confused with theformer Premier of North Korea with the same name).[2] Kim Pyong-il was prominent in Korean politics until he became ambassador toHungary. In 2015, Kim Pyong Il became the ambassador to theCzech Republic; he officially retired in 2019 and returned to North Korea.[citation needed]
Kim was reported to have had other children with women who he was not married to.[107] They included Kim Hyŏn-nam (born 1972, head of thePropaganda and Agitation Department of the Workers' Party since 2002).[108]
Kim depicted as theSun on a propaganda mural. The given nameIl-sung means 'become the Sun'. Likewise, his birthday is called "Day of the Sun".
The original statue of Kim Il Sung onMansudae Hill (1972–2012). The one ofKim Jong Il was added much later.
A mural inPyongyang of a young Kim Il Sung giving a speech
Propaganda mural with Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang
Kim Il Sung was revered as a godlike figure within North Korea during his lifetime, but his personality cult struggled to extend beyond the country's borders.[118] There are over 500 statues of him in North Korea, similar to the many statues and monuments that Eastern Bloc countries erected of their leaders.[119] The most prominent are atKim Il Sung University,Kim Il Sung Stadium,Mansudae Hill, Kim Il Sung Bridge and the Immortal Statue of Kim Il Sung. Some statues have reportedly been destroyed by explosions or damaged with graffiti by North Korean dissidents.[40]: 201 [120]Eternal Life monuments have been erected throughout the country, each dedicated to the departedEternal Leader.[121]
Kim Il Sung's image is prominent in places associated with public transportation, especially his posthumous portrait released in 1994, which hangs at every North Korean train station and airport.[119] It is also placed prominently near the border crossings between China and North Korea.[122] At the border outside ofYanji, South Korean tourists could pay the local Chinese residents for a picture taken against the scenery of North Korea beyond theTumen River, with the portrait of Kim Il Sung looming large at the background.[123]
Kim Il Sung's birthday, "Day of the Sun", is celebrated every year as apublic holiday in North Korea.[125] The associated April Spring Friendship Art Festival gathers hundreds of artists from all over the world.[126]
There is a Kim Il Sung Park, a Kim Il Sung Alley, and a Kim Il Sung monument inDamascus, Syria.[127]
Kim Il Sung was the author of many works. According to North Korean sources, these amount to approximately 10,800 speeches, reports, books, treatises, and others.[128] Some, such as the 100-volumeComplete Collection of Kim Il Sung's Works (김일성전집), are published by theWorkers' Party of Korea Publishing House.[129] Shortly before his death, he published an eight-volume autobiography,With the Century.[41]: 26
According to official North Korean sources, Kim Il Sung was the original writer of many plays and operas.[130] One of these, a revolutionary theatrical opera calledThe Flower Girl, was adapted into a locally produced feature film in 1972.[131][132][133]: 178
^In 2021, the official English translation of Kim Jong Un's preferred title,Chairman, was changed to "President". However, the Korean word위원장, meaning "Chairman", was not replaced.[1]
^Kim Il Sung is the English-language Transcription (linguistics) used by the North Korean government.Kim Il-sung is another common transcription in English.
^"Kim Il Sung".American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (Fifth ed.). n.d.Archived from the original on 29 January 2017. Retrieved6 March 2017.
^Yŏng-ho Ch'oe. "Christian Background in the Early Life of Kim Il-Song." Asian Survey 26, no. 10 (1986): 1082–91.https://doi.org/10.2307/2644258.
^"Encyclopaedia Britannica Kim il-sung".encyclopaedia Britannica.com. Encyclopaedia Britannica Holding S.A.,Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 3 January 2022.Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved3 January 2022.
^Kim Il-Sung, "Let Us Repudiate the 'Left' Adventurist Line and Follow the Revolutionary Organizational Line" contained inOn Juche in Our Revolution (Foreign Languages Publishers: Pyongyang, Korea, 1973) 3.
^Suh, Dae-Sook (1981).Korean Communism, 1945–1980: A Reference Guide to the Political System. Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii. pp. 9, 19.ISBN978-0-8248-0740-5.
^Kim Il-Sung, "Let Us Repudiate the 'Left' Adventurist Line and Follow the Revolutionary Organizational Line" contained inOn Juche in Our Revolution, pp. 1–15.
^Kim Il-Sung, "On Waging Armed Struggle Against Japanese Imperialism" on 16 December 1931 contained inOn Juche in Our Revolution, pp. 17–20.
^abO'Neill, Mark (17 October 2010)."Kim Il-sung's secret history".South China Morning Post.Archived from the original on 27 February 2014. Retrieved15 April 2014.
^Jung, Byung Joon (2021),현준혁 암살과 김일성 암살시도―평남 건준의 좌절된 '해방황금시대'와 백의사 [Assassination of Hyun Junhyuk and Assassination Attempt on Kim Ilsung: 'The Frustrated Golden Days' of Pyongnam Korean Committee for the Preparation of the Re-establishment of the State and the Origin of White Shirts Society],역사비평 [Critical Review of History] (in Korean), vol. 136, 역사문제연구소 [The Institute for Korean Historical Studies], pp. 342–388,doi:10.38080/crh.2021.08.136.342,ISSN1227-3627, retrieved21 May 2023
^abWeathersby, Kathryn, "The Soviet Role in the Early Phase of the Korean War",The Journal of American-East Asian Relations 2, no. 4 (Winter 1993): 432
^abGoncharov, Sergei N., Lewis, John W. and Xue Litai,Uncertain Partners: Stalin, Mao, and the Korean War (1993)
^abMansourov, Aleksandr Y.,Stalin, Mao, Kim, and China's Decision to Enter the Korean War, 16 September – 15 October 1950: New Evidence from the Russian Archives, Cold War International History Project Bulletin, Issues 6–7 (Winter 1995/1996): 94–107
^Sudoplatov, Pavel Anatoli, Schecter, Jerrold L., and Schecter, Leona P.,Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness—A Soviet Spymaster, Little Brown, Boston (1994)
^Mossman, Billy (29 June 2005).United States Army in the Korean War: Ebb and Flow November 1950 – July 1951. University Press of the Pacific. p. 51.
^abChung, Chin O.Pyongyang Between Peking and Moscow: North Korea's Involvement in the Sino-Soviet Dispute, 1958–1975. University of Alabama, 1978, p. 45.
^abKim Young Kun; Zagoria, Donald S. (December 1975). "North Korea and the Major Powers".Asian Survey.15 (12):1017–1035.doi:10.2307/2643582.JSTOR2643582.
^Robertson, Phil (5 July 2016)."North Korea's Caste System".Human Rights Watch. Foreign Affairs.Archived from the original on 2 May 2024. Retrieved5 June 2024.
^Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research 17 December 1979 quoting Hoxha'sReflections on China Volume II: "InPyongyang, I believe that even Tito will be astonished at the proportions of the cult of his host, which has reached a level unheard of anywhere else, either in past or present times, let alone in a country which calls itself socialist.""Albanian Leader's 'Reflections on China,' Volume II".CEU.hu. Archived fromthe original on 8 September 2009. Retrieved30 October 2008.
^Jo Am; An Chol-gang, eds. (2002). "The Foreign Orders and Honorary Titles Awarded to President Kim Il Sung".Korea in the 20th Century: 100 Significant Events. Translated by Kim Yong-nam; Kim Kyong-il; Kim Jong-shm. Pyongyang:Foreign Languages Publishing House. p. 162.OCLC276996886.
^Sanders, Alan J. K. (2010)."Orders and medals".Historical Dictionary of Mongolia (Third ed.). Lanham: Scarecrow Press. p. 551.ISBN978-0-8108-7452-7.Archived from the original on 14 October 2022. Retrieved21 June 2018.
^Pulford, Ed (1 August 2019).Mirrorlands: Russia, China, and Journeys in Between. Oxford University Press. p. 233.ISBN978-1-78738-287-9.Archived from the original on 25 November 2021. Retrieved25 November 2021.Although periodically closed when cross-border tensions rise, Tumen's bridge over to Namyang is also an attraction, one I was initially uncertain about visiting given the proximity of uniformed border guards and beaming portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il on a building on the other side.
^Chen, Xiangming (4 February 2005).As Borders Bend: Transnational Spaces on the Pacific Rim. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 167.ISBN978-0-7425-7081-8.Archived from the original on 25 November 2021. Retrieved25 November 2021.Outside the city of Yanji, near the Tumen River, South Korean tourists could pay the local Chinese residents for a picture taken against the backdrop of North Korea, just across the water, with the giant portrait of the late leader, Kim Il Sung, looming large (Lawrence, 1999).
^"Birthday of Kim Il-sung".Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary (Fourth ed.). Omnigraphics. 2010.Archived from the original on 12 June 2022. Retrieved3 May 2015 – via TheFreeDictionary.com.
Baik Bong, "From Birth to Triumphant Return to Homeland", "From Building Democratic Korea to Chollima Flight", and "From Independent National Economy to 10-Point Political Programme".
Blair, Clay,The Forgotten War: America in Korea, Naval Institute Press (2003).
Malici, Akan, and Johnna Malici. "The operational codes of Fidel Castro and Kim Il Sung: the last cold warriors?"Political Psychology 26.3 (2005): 387–412.online
Oh, Kong Dan.Leadership Change in North Korean Politics: The Succession to Kim Il Sung (RAND, 1988)online.
Shen, Zhihua, and Yafeng Xia.A Misunderstood Friendship: Mao Zedong, Kim Il-sung, and Sino-North Korean Relations, 1949-1976 (Revised Edition. Columbia University Press, 2020).
Sudoplatov, Pavel Anatoli, Schecter, Jerrold L., and Schecter, Leona P.,Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness – A Soviet Spymaster, (Little Brown, 1994).
Suh, Dae-Sook.Kim Il Sung: The North Korean Leader (Columbia University Press, 1988).
Szalontai, Balázs,Kim Il Sung in the Khrushchev Era: Soviet–DPRK Relations and the Roots of North Korean Despotism, 1953–1964. Stanford: Stanford University Press; Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press (2005).online
Yŏng-ho Ch'oe. "Christian Background in the Early Life of Kim Il-Song." Asian Survey 26, no. 10 (1986): 1082–91.[1].
^To keep the tree of manageable size, it omits five out of the seven known legitimate children of Kim Il Sung. Other children not shown in the tree are:Kim Man-il (1944-1947; child ofKim Jong Suk), Kim Kyong-jin (1952-; child ofKim Song-ae), Kim Yong-il (1955-2000; child of Kim Song-ae), and Kim Kyong Suk (1951-; child of Kim Song-ae). A stillborn daughter is also omitted. Kim Il Sung was reported to have had other children with women who he was not married to; they included Kim Hyŏn-nam (born 1972). Also, only some of the descendants of Kim Jong Il and Kim Jung Un (Kim Il Sung's successors) are included.
^Korean names often have a variety of transliterations into English, which can be confusing. For example, "Kim Jong-chul" may also be written "Gim Jeong-cheol" or "Kim Jŏng-ch'ŏl" among many other variations. SeeKorean romanization for more information.
^Official North Korean biographies of Kim Jong Il list his birth year as 1942. TheKorean calendar is based upon theChinese zodiac which is believed to characterize one's personality. The year 1942 (Year of the Horse), in addition to being 30 years since Kim Il Sung's birth may be viewed as a better year than others, thus creating a motive to lie about a birth year.
^Official North Korean biographies of Kim Jong Un list his birth year as 1982. TheKorean calendar is based upon theChinese zodiac which is believed to characterize one's personality. The year 1982 (Year of the Dog), in addition to being 70 years since Kim Il Sung's birth, may be viewed as a better year than others, thus creating a motive to lie about a birth year.
^Birth year for Kim Ju Ae is not publicly known. She may have been born in either late 2012 or early 2013.
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