Kim Il Sung

Supreme Leader of North Korea from 1948 to 1994

In this Korean name, the family name is  Kim.

Eternal President

Kim Il Sung

김일성

Official portrait, 1966

1st Supreme Leader of North Korea
In office
9 September 1948 – 8 July 1994
President|

See list

* Kim Tu-bong
* Choe Yong-gon
* Himself

Premier|

See list

* Himself
* Kim Il
* Pak Song-chol
* Ri Jong-ok
* Kang Song-san
* Ri Kun-mo
* Yon Hyong-muk
* Kang Song-san

Preceded by| Position established
Succeeded by| Kim Jong Il
General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea
In office
12 October 1966 – 8 July 1994
Secretary|

See list

* Choe Yong-gon
* Kim Il
* Pak Kum-chol
* Ri Hyo-son
* Kim Kwang-hyop
* Sok San
* Ho Pong-hak
* Kim Yong-ju
* Pak Yong-guk
* Kim To-man
* Ri Kuk-jin
* Kim Jung-rin
* Yang Hyong-sop
* O Jin-u
* Kim Tong-gyu
* Han Ik-su
* Hyon Mu-gwang
* Kim Jong Il
* Hwang Jang-yop
* Kim Yong-nam
* Kim Hwan
* Yon Hyong-muk
* Yun Ki-bok
* Hong Si-hak

Preceded by| Himself (as Chairman)
Succeeded by| Kim Jong Il
President of North Korea
In office
28 December 1972 – 8 July 1994
Supreme Leader| Himself
Premier|

See list

* Kim Il
* Pak Song-chol
* Ri Jong-ok
* Kang Song-san
* Ri Kun-mo
* Yon Hyong-muk
* Kang Song-san

Vice President|

See list

* Choe Yong-gon
* Kang Ryang-uk
* Kim Tong-kyu
* Kim Il
* Pak Song-chol
* Rim Chun-chu
* Ri Jong-ok
* Kim Pyong-sik

Preceded by| Office established[a]
Succeeded by| Office abolished[b][c]
Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea
In office
24 June 1949 – 12 October 1966
Vice Chairman|

See list

* Ho Ka-i
* Pak Hon-yong
* Kim Il
* Pak Chang-ok
* Pak Chong-ae
* Pak Kum-chol
* Pak Yong-bin
* Choe Yong-gon
* Jong Il-yong
* Kim Chang-man
* Ri Hyo-son

Preceded by| Kim Tu-bong
Succeeded by| Himself (as General Secretary)
4th Premier of North Korea
In office
9 September 1948 – 28 December 1972
President|

* Kim Tu-bong
* Choe Yong-gon

First Vice Premier| Kim Il
Vice Premier|

See list

* Pak Hon-yong
* Hong Myong-hui
* Kim Chaek
* Kim Il
* Jong Il-ryong
* Nam Il
* Pak Ui-wan
* Jong Jun-thaek
* Kim Kwang-hyop
* Kim Chang-man
* Ri Jong-ok
* Ri Ju-yon
* Pak Song-chol
* Choe Yong-jin

Preceded by| Office established
Succeeded by| Kim Il
Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army
In office
5 July 1950 – 24 December 1991
Preceded by| Choe Yong-gon
Succeeded by| Kim Jong Il
Personal details
Born|

Kim Song Ju

(1912-04-15)15 April 1912
Namni, Heijō, Heian'nan-dō, Korea, Empire of Japan
Died| 8 July 1994(1994-07-08) (aged 82)
Hyangsan Residence, Hyangsan County, North Pyongan Province, North Korea
Resting place| Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, Pyongyang
Nationality| North Korean
Political party| Workers' Party of Korea
Other political
affiliations|

* Workers' Party of North Korea (1946–1949)
* Chinese Communist Party (1931–1946)

Spouses|

* Kim Jong Suk

(m. 1941; died 1949)​

* Kim Song-ae

(m. 1952)​

Children| 7, including Kim Jong Il, Kim Man-il, Kim Kyong-hui and Kim Pyong Il[2]
Parents|

* Kim Hyong Jik
* Kang Pan Suk

Relatives| Kim family
Signature|
Military service
Allegiance|

* North Korea
* Soviet Union
* Communist China

Branch/service|

* Korean People's Army Ground Force
* Red Army
* Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army

Years of service|

* 1941–1945
* 1948–1994

Rank| Taewonsu
Unit| 88th Separate Rifle Brigade, Red Army
Commands| All (Supreme Commander)
Battles/wars|

* World War II
* Korean War

Korean name
Chosŏn'gŭl|

김일성

Hancha|

金日成[3]

Revised Romanization| Gim Ilseong
McCune–Reischauer| Kim Ilsŏng
Birth name
Chosŏn'gŭl|

김성주

Hancha|

金成柱[3]

Revised Romanization| Gim Seongju
McCune–Reischauer| Kim Sŏngju

Central institution membership

* 1980–1994: Member, Presidium of the Political Bureau of the 6th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea
* 1970–1980: Member, Political Committee of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea
* 1966–1994: Secretariat of the Workers' Party of Korea
* 1966–1970: Member, Standing Committee of the Political Committee of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea
* 1961–1970: Chairman, Political Committee of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea
* 1956–1961: Member, Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea
* 1948–1994: Deputy, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th Supreme People's Assembly
* 1946–1956: Member, Political Committee of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea
* 1946–1994: Member, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea

* * *

Other offices held

* 1982–1994: Chairman, Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea
* 1972–1992: Chairman, National Defense Commission of the Central People's Committee of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
* 1970–1982: Chairman, Military Commission of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea
* 1992–1993: Chairman, National Defense Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
* 1947–1948: Chairman, People's Committee of North Korea
* 1946–1949: Vice Chairman, Central Committee of the Workers' Party of North Korea
* 1946–1947: Chairman, Provisional People's Committee of North Korea
* 1945–1946: Chairman, North Korea Bureau of the Communist Party of Korea

Kim Il Sung[d] (/kɪm ɪlˈsʌŋ, -ˈsʊŋ/;[4] Korean: 김일성, Korean pronunciation: [kimils͈ʌŋ]; born Kim Song Ju;[e][5] 15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was a North Korean politician, revolutionary, and military leader. He founded the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea, which he led as Supreme Leader from its establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. Afterwards, he was succeeded by his son Kim Jong Il and was declared Eternal President.

He held the posts of the Premier from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to 1994. He was the leader of the Workers' 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 of Japanese rule over Korea in 1945 following Japan's surrender in World War II, he authorized the invasion of South 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 the Korean 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 a totalitarian socialist personalist dictatorship with a centrally planned economy. It had very close political and economic relations with the Soviet Union. By the 1960s, North Korea had a slightly higher standard 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 stagnated and then declined during the same period.[6] Differences emerged between North Korea and the Soviet Union; chief among them was Kim Il Sung's philosophy of Juche, which focused on Korean nationalism and self-reliance. Despite this, the country received funds, subsidies and aid from the USSR and the Eastern Bloc until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991.

The resulting loss of economic aid negatively affected North Korea's economy, contributing to widespread famine in 1994. During this period, North Korea also remained critical of the United States defense force's presence in the region, which it considered imperialist, having seized the American ship USS Pueblo in 1968. This was part of an infiltration and subversion campaign to reunify the peninsula under North Korea's rule. Kim outlived his allies, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong, by over four and almost two decades, respectively, and remained in power during the terms of office of six South Korean Presidents and ten United States Presidents. Known as the Great Leader (Suryong), he established a far-reaching personality cult which dominates domestic politics in North Korea. At the 6th WPK Congress in 1980, his oldest son Kim Jong Il was elected to be a Presidium member and chosen to be his successor, thus establishing the Kim dynasty.

## Early life

[edit]

### Family background

[edit]

The house in which Kim was born

Kim was born Kim Song Ju to father Kim Hyong Jik and mother Kang Pan Suk. Kim had two younger brothers, Kim Chul Ju [ko] and Kim Yong-ju.[7]: 3 Kim Chul Ju died while fighting the Japanese 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.[8][9]

1926 portrait of Kim from Whasung Military Academy, published in his autobiography With the Century

Kim's family, part of the Jeonju Kim clan, is said to have originated in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province. In 1860, his great-grandfather, Kim Ŭngu, settled in the Mangyongdae neighborhood of Pyongyang. Kim was reportedly born in the small village of Mangyungbong (then called Namni) near Pyongyang on 15 April 1912.[10][11]: 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.[12]: 73

1927 portrait of Kim from Yuwen Middle School, published in his autobiography With the Century

According to Kim, his family was always a step away from poverty. Kim said that he was raised by a very active Presbyterian Christian family. His maternal grandfather was a Protestant minister, and his father had gone to a missionary school and he was also an elder in the Presbyterian Church.[13][14] According to an official North Korean government account, Kim's family participated in anti-Japanese activities and fled to Manchuria in 1920. Like most Korean families, they resented the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula (which had begun on 29 August 1910).[11]: 12 Japanese repression of Korean opposition was harsh, resulting in the arrest and detention of more than 52,000 Korean citizens in 1912 alone.[11]: 13 This repression had forced many Korean families to flee the Korean peninsula, and settle in Manchuria.[15]

Nevertheless, Kim's parents, especially his mother, played a role in the anti-Japanese struggle that was sweeping the peninsula.[11]: 16 Their exact involvement - whether their cause was missionary, nationalist, or both - is unclear.[16]: 53

### Communist and guerrilla activities

[edit]

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 the Down-with-Imperialism Union in 1926.[17] He attended Whasung Military Academy in 1926, but found the academy's training methods outdated and quit it in 1927. He then attended Yuwen Middle School in China's Jilin province until 1930,[18] when he rejected the feudal traditions of older-generation Koreans and became interested in communist ideologies. Seventeen-year-old Kim became the youngest member of the Korean Communist Youth Association [ko], an underground Marxist organization with fewer than twenty members. It was led by Hŏ So (허소; 許笑), who belonged to the South 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.[16]: 52 [7]: 7

In 1931, Kim joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) - the Communist Party of Korea had been founded in 1925, but had been thrown out of the Communist International in the early 1930s for being too nationalist. He joined various anti-Japanese guerrilla 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".[19] The authorities easily suppressed this impromptu uprising. Because of the attack, the Japanese began to plan an occupation of Manchuria.[20] In a speech Kim allegedly made before a meeting of Young Communist League delegates on 20 May 1931 in Yenchi County in Manchuria,[21] he warned the delegates against such unplanned uprisings as the 30 May 1930 uprising in eastern Manchuria.[22]

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 a puppet government.[23] In 1935, Kim became a member of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army, a guerrilla group led by the CCP.[24] Kim was appointed the same year to serve as political commissar for the 3rd detachment of the second division, consisting of around 160 soldiers.[16]: 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 to Kang Sheng, a high-ranking party member close to Mao Zedong in Yan'an, until Wei's death on 8 March 1941.[7]: 8–10

Kim's actions during the Minsaengdan incident helped solidify his leadership.[25] The CCP operating in Manchuria had become suspicious that any Korean could secretly be a member of the pro-Japanese and anti-communist Minsaengdan.[26] 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.[26] 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.[25] After the destruction of the suspect files and the rehabilitation of suspects, those who had fled the purge rallied around Kim.[25] 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."[25]

In 1935, Kim took the name Kim Il Sung, meaning "Kim become the sun".[27]: 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 a raid on Poch'onbo, destroying the local government offices and setting fire to a Japanese police station and post office.[28] The success of the raid demonstrated Kim's talents as a military leader.[28] 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.[28] 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.[29]: 160–161 [30] He appeared on Japanese wanted lists as the "Tiger".[31] The Japanese "Maeda Unit" was sent to hunt him in February 1940.[31] 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 the Amur River into the Soviet Union.[16]: 53–54 Kim was sent to a camp at Vyatskoye near Khabarovsk, where the Soviets retrained the Korean communist guerrillas. In August 1942, Kim and his army were assigned to a special unit known as the 88th Separate Rifle Brigade, which belonged to the Soviet Red Army. Kim's immediate superior was Zhou Baozhong.[32][33] Kim became a Major in the Soviet Red Army[7]: 50 and served in it until the end of World War II in 1945.[34]

### Return to Korea

[edit]

Kim attending a mass event with members of the Soviet Civil Administration, Pyongyang, October 1945

The Soviet Union declared war on Japan on 8 August 1945, and the Red Army entered Pyongyang on 24 August 1945. Stalin had instructed Lavrentiy Beria to recommend a communist leader for the Soviet-occupied territories and Beria met Kim several times before recommending him to Stalin.[10][35][36]

Kim arrived in the Korean port of Wonsan on 19 September 1945 after 26 years in exile.[27]: 51 According to Leonid Vassin, an officer with the Soviet MVD, 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.[37]: 50

Kim Il Sung (center) and Kim Tu-bong (second from the right) at the joint meeting of the New People's Party and the Workers' Party of North Korea in Pyongyang, 28 August 1946

In December 1945, the Soviets installed Kim as first secretary of the North Korean Branch Bureau of the Communist Party of Korea.[27]: 56 Originally, the Soviets preferred Cho Man-sik to lead a popular front government, but Cho refused to support a UN-backed trusteeship and clashed with Kim.[38] General Terentii Shtykov, who led the Soviet occupation of northern Korea, supported Kim over Pak Hon-yong to lead the Provisional People's Committee for North Korea on 8 February 1946.[39] As chairman of the committee, Kim was "the top Korean administrative leader in the North," though he was still de facto subordinate to General Shtykov until the Chinese intervention in the Korean War.[36][27]: 56 [39]

On 1 March 1946, while giving a speech to commemorate an anniversary of the March First Movement, a member of the anti-communist terrorist group the White Shirts Society attempted to assassinate Kim by lobbing a grenade at his podium. However, Soviet military officer Yakov Novichenko grabbed the grenade and absorbed the blast with his body, leaving Kim and other bystanders unharmed.[40][41][42]

To solidify his control, Kim established the Korean 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 against Nationalist Chinese troops.[43] 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 in MiG-15 jet aircraft at secret bases.[44]

### Claims that Kim Il Sung was an impostor

[edit]

Kim during the 1946 North Korean local elections campaign

Several sources claim the name "Kim Il Sung" had previously been used by a prominent early leader of the Korean resistance, Kim Kyung-cheon.[37]: 44 The Soviet officer Grigory Mekler, who worked with Kim during the Soviet occupation, said that Kim took this name from a former commander who had died.[45] However, historian Andrei 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.[16]: 55 Historian Bruce Cumings pointed out that Japanese officers from the Kwantung Army have attested to his fame as a resistance figure.[29]: 160–161

On August 12, 2009, Yonhap News Agency revealed that U.S. Army Military Government in Korea had already acknowledged that Kim Il Sung was in fact pretended by his nephew Kim Song-ju.[46] In 2019, investigative journalist Annie Jacobsen published the book Surprise, Kill, Vanish, which further expounded that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) once concluded that Kim Il Sung was a blackmailed imposter operated by the Soviet Union.[47] 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 the North 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."[47]

Historians generally accept the view that, while Kim's exploits were exaggerated by the personality cult which was built around him, he was a significant guerrilla leader.[48][49][50]

## Leader of North Korea

[edit]

### Early years

[edit]

Kim's official portrait in 1948

Despite the United Nations' plans to conduct nationwide elections in Korea, on 15 August 1948, the US-occupied south proclaimed the Republic of Korea, which claimed sovereignty over all of Korea. In response, the Soviets held elections of their own in their northern occupation zone on 25 August 1948 for a Supreme People's Assembly.[51] The Democratic People's Republic of Korea was proclaimed on 9 September 1948, with Kim as the Soviet-designated premier.

On 12 October, the Soviet Union recognized Kim's government as the sovereign government of the entire peninsula, including the south.[52] 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 its southern counterpart to become the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) with Kim as party chairman.[53] By 1949, Kim and the communists had consolidated their rule in North Korea.[37]: 53 Around this time, Kim began promoting an intense personality cult. The first of many statues of him appeared, and he began calling himself "Great Leader".[37]: 53

In February 1946, Kim Il Sung decided to introduce a number of reforms. Over 50% of the arable land was redistributed, an 8-hour work day was proclaimed and all heavy industry was to be nationalized.[7]: 68 There were improvements in the health of the population after he nationalized healthcare and made it available to all citizens.[54]

### Korean War

[edit]

Main article: Korean War

Kim signs the Korean Armistice Agreement

Archival material suggests[55][56][57] that North Korea's decision to invade South Korea was Kim's initiative, not a Soviet one. Evidence suggests that Soviet intelligence, through its espionage sources in the US government and British SIS, had obtained information on the limitations of US atomic bomb stockpiles as well as defense program cuts, leading Stalin to conclude that the Truman administration would not intervene in Korea.[58]

China acquiesced only reluctantly to the idea of Korean reunification after being told by Kim that Stalin had approved the action.[55][56][57] 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 the Yalu River late in 1950. At the outset of the war in June and July, North Korean forces captured Seoul and occupied most of the South, save for a small section of territory in the southeast region of the South that was called the Pusan Perimeter. But in September, the North Koreans were driven back by the US-led counterattack that started with the UN landing in Incheon, 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 P'yŏngyang, forcing Kim and his government to flee north, first to Sinuiju and eventually into Kanggye.[59][60]

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,[61]: 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.[61]: 335–336 The UN troops were forced to withdraw and Chinese troops retook P'yŏngyang 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 the 38th Parallel. After a series of offensives and counter-offensives by both sides, followed by a grueling period of largely static trench 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.[62]

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.[63]

### Consolidation of power

[edit]

Kim on a 1956 visit to East Germany, chatting with painter Otto Nagel and Prime Minister Otto 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 to Soviet Union's five-year plans) to establish a command economy, with all industry owned by the state and all agriculture collectivized. 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 was fraught with political instability and economic crises.[64][65][66]

In the ensuing years, Kim established himself as an independent leader of international communism. In 1956, he joined Mao in the "anti-revisionist" camp, which did not accept Nikita Khrushchev's program of de-Stalinization, yet he did not become a Maoist himself. At the same time, he consolidated his power over the Korean 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.[67][68] 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.[69] The 1955 Juche 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.[70][71] Kim developed the policy and ideology of Juche in opposition to the idea of North Korea as a satellite 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.[72] 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 the Yan'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 of Marx, Lenin, Mao, and Stalin 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 the Chinese 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.[73]

During the 1956 August 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.[74][75] 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.[74][75]

During his rise and his consolidation of power, Kim created the songbun, a caste 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.[76][77] 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 of Japan's occupying government during World War II, were forcibly relocated to the country's isolated and impoverished northern provinces. When years of famine ravaged the country in the 1990s, those people who lived in its marginalized and remote communities were hardest hit.[78]

During his rule, North Korea's government was responsible for widespread human rights abuses.[79][80][81] Kim Il Sung punished real and perceived dissent through purges which included public executions and enforced disappearances. Not only dissenters but their entire extended families were punished 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 or kwanliso, a part of Kim's vast network of abusive penal 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 were tortured and executed by guards.[78]

### Later years

[edit]

Kim greets visiting Romanian President Nicolae 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 the Sino-Soviet split. After Khrushchev was replaced by Leonid 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 the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s. Kim in turn was denounced by Mao's Red Guards.[82] At the same time, Kim reinstated relations with most of Eastern Europe's communist countries, primarily with Erich Honecker's East Germany and Nicolae Ceaușescu's Romania. Ceaușescu was heavily influenced by Kim's ideology, and the personality cult which grew around him in Romania was very similar to that of Kim.[83]

In the 1960s, Kim became impressed with the efforts of North Vietnamese Leader Ho Chi Minh to reunify Vietnam through guerrilla warfare and thought that something similar might be possible in Korea.[84]: 30–31 Infiltration and subversion efforts were thus greatly stepped up against US forces and the leadership in South Korea.[84]: 32–33 These efforts culminated in an attempt to storm the Blue House and assassinate President Park Chung Hee.[84]: 32 North Korean troops thus took a much more aggressive stance toward US forces in and around South Korea, engaging US Army troops in fire-fights along the Demilitarized Zone. The 1968 capture of the crew of the spy ship USS Pueblo was a part of this campaign.[84]: 33

Kim and Romanian president Nicolae Ceaușescu at Moranbong Stadium, 1978

Albania's Enver Hoxha (another independent-minded communist leader) was a fierce enemy of the country and Kim Il Sung, writing in June 1977 that "genuine Marxist-Leninists" will understand that the "ideology which is guiding the Korean Workers' Party and the Communist Party of China ... is revisionist" and later that month he added that "in Pyongyang, I believe that even Tito 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."[85][86] 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 and non-aligned countries like Yugoslavia. 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's Mobutu Sese Seko was also heavily influenced by Kim's style of rule.[87]

The North Korean government's practice of abducting foreign nationals, such as South Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Thais, and Romanians, 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 the hijacking 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.[78]

The Constitution of North Korea was proclaimed on December 27, 1972, which created the position of the President of North Korea. Kim gave up his former Premier of the Cabinet position, which he had held since 1948, and became instead president, after the 1972 North Korean parliamentary election. On 14 April 1975, North Korea discontinued most formal use of its traditional units and adopted the metric system.[88] In 1980, he decided that his son Kim Jong Il would succeed him, and increasingly delegated the running of the government to him. The Kim 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 the Sixth 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.[89]

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 Korea stagnated and then declined in the 1980s.[90][91] The practical effect of Juche was to cut the country off from virtually all foreign trade in order to make it entirely self-reliant. The economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping in China from 1979 onward meant that trade with the moribund economy of North Korea held decreasing interest for China. The Revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe and the dissolution 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.[92]

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 Chairman Mao Zedong in Beijing, 1970.

As he aged, starting in the 1970s, Kim developed a calcinosis[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 for Fidel Castro who met Kim in 1986 wrote later that it was Kim's own paranoia that prevented it from being operated on.[93] 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 a baseball by the late 1980s.[94]: 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's National 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. So far, the elder Kim - even though he is dead - has remained the country's president and the chairman of the Party's Central Military Commission, the party's organization that has supreme supervision and authority over military matters. In early 1994, Kim began investing in nuclear power to offset energy shortages brought on by economic problems. This was the first of many "nuclear crises". On 19 May 1994, Kim ordered spent fuel to be unloaded from the already disputed nuclear research facility in Yongbyon. Despite repeated chiding from Western nations, Kim continued to conduct nuclear research and carry on with the uranium enrichment program. In June 1994, former US President Jimmy Carter traveled to Pyongyang in an effort to persuade Kim to negotiate with the Clinton administration over its nuclear program.[95] To the astonishment of the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency, Kim agreed to halt his nuclear research program and seemed to be embarking upon a new opening to the West.[96]

Kim Il Sung's 80th birthday ceremony with international guests, April 1992

### Death

[edit]

Main article: Death and state funeral of Kim Il Sung

External videos

KCTV: Kim Il Sung Funeral July 8, 1994 – Full Video

Shortly before noon on 7 July 1994, Kim Il Sung collapsed from a heart attack at his residence in Hyangsan, 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 am PST on 8 July 1994, aged 82.[97] After the traditional Confucian mourning period, his death was declared 34 hours later.[98]

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.[99] 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 public mausoleum at the Kumsusan 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.[100]

## Contributions to political theory

[edit]

Main article: Juche

Kim Il Sung's most notable contribution to political theory is his conceptualization of the Juche idea, originally described as a variant of Marxism–Leninism.

In his writings, Kim engaged with Karl Marx's metaphor that religion is the opium of the people. He did so both in the context of responding to his comrades who objected to working with religious groups (Chonbulygo and Chondoism, respectively).[101] 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.[101] 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."[101] 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."[101]

## Personal life

[edit]

See also: Kim family (North Korea)

Kim's first wife, Kim Jong Suk, and their son, Kim Jong Il

Kim Il Sung married twice. His first 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 married Kim 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 the former Premier of North Korea with the same name).[2] Kim Pyong-il was prominent in Korean politics until he became ambassador to Hungary. In 2015, Kim Pyong Il became the ambassador to the Czech 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.[102] They included Kim Hyŏn-nam (born 1972, head of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Workers' Party since 2002).[103]

## Awards

[edit]

Main article: Awards and decorations received by Kim Il Sung

According to North Korean sources, Kim Il Sung had received 230 foreign orders, medals and titles from 70 countries since the 1940s until, and after, his death.[104] They include: The Soviet Order of the Red Banner and the Order of Lenin (twice),[105][106] Star of the Republic of Indonesia (first class), the Bulgarian Order of Georgi Dimitrov (twice), the Togolese Order of Mono (Grand Cross), the Order of the Yugoslav Star (Great Star),[107] the Cuban Order of José Martí (twice), the East German Order of Karl Marx (twice), the Maltese Xirka Ġieħ ir-Repubblika, the Burkinabe Order of the Gold Star of Nahouri, Order of the Grand Star of Honour of Socialist Ethiopia, the Nicaraguan Augusto Cesar Sandino Order [es], the Vietnamese Gold Star Order,[106] the Czechoslovak Order of Klement Gottwald,[108] the Royal Order of Cambodia (Grand Cross),[109] the National Order of Madagascar (first class, Grand Cross),[110] the Mongolian Order of Sukhbaatar,[111] and the Romanian orders of Order of Victory of Socialism and Order of the Star of the Romanian Socialist Republic (first class with band).[106][112]

## Legacy

[edit]

Further information: North Korean cult of personality § Kim Il Sung

* The official posthumous portrait of Kim Il Sung, often seen in public areas

* Kim depicted as the Sun on a propaganda mural. The given name Il-sung means 'become the Sun'. Likewise, his birthday is called "Day of the Sun".

* The original statue of Kim Il Sung on Mansudae Hill (1972–2012). The one of Kim Jong Il was added much later.

* A mural in Pyongyang 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.[113] 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.[114] The most prominent are at Kim 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.[37]: 201 [115] Yŏng Saeng ("eternal life") monuments have been erected throughout the country, each dedicated to the departed "Eternal Leader".[116]

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.[114] It is also placed prominently near the border crossings between China and North Korea.[117] At the border outside of Yanji, South Korean tourists could pay the local Chinese residents for a picture taken against the scenery of North Korea beyond the Tumen River, with the portrait of Kim Il Sung looming large at the background.[118]

Thousands of gifts to Kim Il Sung from foreign leaders are housed in the International Friendship Exhibition.[119]

Kim Il Sung's birthday, "Day of the Sun", is celebrated every year as a public holiday in North Korea.[120] The associated April Spring Friendship Art Festival gathers hundreds of artists from all over the world.[121]

There is a Kim Il Sung Park, a Kim Il Sung Alley, and a Kim Il Sung monument in Damascus, Syria.[122]

## Works

[edit]

Main article: Kim Il Sung bibliography

Collection of books written by Kim Il Sung

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.[123] Some, such as the 100-volume Complete Collection of Kim Il Sung's Works (김일성전집), are published by the Workers' Party of Korea Publishing House.[124] Shortly before his death, he published an eight-volume autobiography, With the Century.[38]: 26

According to official North Korean sources, Kim Il Sung was the original writer of many plays and operas.[125] One of these, a revolutionary theatrical opera called The Flower Girl, was adapted into a locally produced feature film in 1972.[126][127][128]: 178

## See also

[edit]

* Biography portal
* Communism portal
* North Korea portal
* Socialism portal

* Kim family (North Korea)
* List of Kim Il Sung's titles
* List of international trips made by Kim Il Sung
* List of things named after Kim Il Sung
* "Song of General Kim Il Sung"
* Residences of North Korean leaders
* Korean independence movement
* Communism in Korea
* Government of North Korea
* History of North Korea
* Human rights in North Korea
* Politics of North Korea

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Choi Yong-kun was previously head of state as the President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly.
2. ^ Kim Yong-nam became later head of state as the President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly.
3. ^ In 2021, the official English translation of Kim Jong Un's preferred title, Chairman, was changed to "President". However, the Korean word 위원장, meaning "Chairman", was not replaced.[1]
4. ^ Kim Il Sung is the English-language transcription used by the North Korean government. Kim Il-sung is another common transcription in English.
5. ^ Korean: 김성주

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76. ^ Robertson, Phil (5 July 2016). "North Korea's Caste System". Human Rights Watch. Foreign Affairs. Archived from the original on 2 May 2024. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
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78. ^ a b c North Korea: Kim Il-Sung's Catastrophic Rights Legacy Archived 21 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine 13 April 2016. Human Rights Watch, 2016.
79. ^ Black Book of Communism. p. 564.
80. ^ The Worst of the Worst: The World's Most Repressive Societies Archived 7 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Freedom House, 2012.
81. ^ Statistics of democide – Chapter 10 – Statistics Of North Korean Democide – Estimates, Calculations, And Sources Archived 11 September 2018 at the Wayback Machine by Rudolph Rummel.
82. ^ "Brezhnev-Kim Il-Sung relations". Asia Times. Archived from the original on 23 August 2012.
83. ^ Behr, Edward Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite, New York: Villard Books, 1991 page 195.
84. ^ a b c d Lankov, Andrei (2015). The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-939003-8.
85. ^ Enver Hoxha, "Reflections on China II: Extracts from the Political Diary Archived 15 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine", Institute of Marxist–Leninist Studies at the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania, Tirana, 1979, pp 516, 517, 521, 547, 548, 549.
86. ^ Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research 17 December 1979 quoting Hoxha's Reflections on China Volume II: "In Pyongyang, 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 from the original on 8 September 2009. Retrieved 30 October 2008.
87. ^ Howard W. French, With Rebel Gains and Mobutu in France, Nation Is in Effect Without a Government Archived 30 June 2017 at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times (17 March 1997).
88. ^ "DPR Korea", Official site, Asia–Pacific Legal Metrology Forum, 2015, archived from the original on 9 February 2017.
89. ^ Haberman, Clyde (17 November 1986). "Kim Il Sung, at 74, Is Reported Dead". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 19 March 2017. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
90. ^ Bluth, Christoph (2008). Korea. Cambridge: Polity Press. p. 34\. ISBN 978-07456-3357-2.
91. ^ "North Korea - From 1970 to the death of Kim Il-Sung". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 8 May 2019. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
92. ^ "North Korea's Trade With the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe". Open Society Archives. Archived from the original on 10 March 2016.
93. ^ Juan Reinaldo Sanchez, The Double Life of Fidel Castro: My 17 Years as Personal Bodyguard to El Lider Maximo, Penguin Press (2014) p. 234.
94. ^ Cumings, Bruce (2003). North Korea: Another Country. New York: New Press. p. 115. ISBN 978-1-56584-940-2.
95. ^ Blakemore, Erin (1 September 2018). "Bill Clinton Once Struck a Nuclear Deal With North Korea". history.com. A&E Television Networks. Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
96. ^ "Chronology of U.S.-North Korean Nuclear and Missile Diplomacy". Arms Control Association. Archived from the original on 22 April 2012.
97. ^ Reid, T. R. (9 July 1994). "NORTH KOREAN PRESIDENT KIM IL SUNG DIES AT 82". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
98. ^ Demick, Barbara: Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. p. 92
99. ^ "North Korea postpones Kim's funeral". The Straits Times. 17 July 1994. Archived from the original on 14 October 2022. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
100. ^ Scenes of lamentation after Kim Il-sung's death on YouTube
101. ^ a b c d Boer, Roland (2019). Red theology : on the Christian Communist tradition. Boston: Haymarket Books. p. 221\. ISBN 978-90-04-38132-2. OCLC 1078879745.
102. ^ Saxonberg, Steven (14 February 2013). Transitions and Non-Transitions from Communism: Regime Survival in China, Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam. Cambridge University Press. p. 123\. ISBN 978-1-107-02388-8. Archived from the original on 18 May 2016.
103. ^ Henry, Terrence (1 May 2005). "After Kim Jong Il". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 1 October 2014.
104. ^ 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\. OCLC 276996886.
105. ^ Westad, Odd Arne (2017). The Cold War: A World History. New York: Basic Books. p. 190\. ISBN 978-0-465-09313-7. Archived from the original on 14 October 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
106. ^ a b c "Kim Il Sung". Who's Who in Asian and Australasian Politics. London: Bowker-Saur. 1991. p. 146\. ISBN 978-0-86291-593-3.
107. ^ Acović, Dragomir (2012). Slava i čast: Odlikovanja među Srbima, Srbi među odlikovanjima. Belgrade: Službeni Glasnik. p. 605.
108. ^ "Řád Klementa Gottwalda: za budování socialistické vlasti" (PDF) (in Czech). Archiv Kanceláře Prezidenta Republiky. 17 January 2015. p. 11\. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 August 2016. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
109. ^ News from Hsinhua News Agency: Daily Bulletin. London: Xin hua tong xun she. 1 October 1965. p. 53\. OCLC 300956682. Archived from the original on 14 October 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
110. ^ Summary of World Broadcasts: Far East, Part 3. Reading: Monitoring Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. 1985. OCLC 976978783. Archived from the original on 14 October 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
111. ^ Sanders, Alan J. K. (2010). "Orders and medals". Historical Dictionary of Mongolia (Third ed.). Lanham: Scarecrow Press. p. 551\. ISBN 978-0-8108-7452-7. Archived from the original on 14 October 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
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113. ^ Young, Benjamin R. (6 April 2021). Guns, Guerillas, and the Great Leader: North Korea and the Third World. Stanford University Press. p. 99\. ISBN 978-1-5036-2764-2. Archived from the original on 25 November 2021. Retrieved 25 November 2021. "Kim Il Sung was a godlike figure within the DPRK but his personality cult struggled to extend beyond the North Korean borders."
114. ^ a b Portal, Jane (2005). Art under control in North Korea. Reaktion Books. p. 82\. ISBN 978-1-86189-236-2.
115. ^ "N.Korean Dynasty's Authority Challenged". The Chosun Ilbo. 13 February 2012. Archived from the original on 29 September 2012. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
116. ^ "Controversy Stirs Over Kim Monument at PUST". Daily NK. 9 April 2010. Archived from the original on 12 April 2010. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
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118. ^ Chen, Xiangming (4 February 2005). As Borders Bend: Transnational Spaces on the Pacific Rim. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 167\. ISBN 978-0-7425-7081-8. Archived from the original on 25 November 2021. Retrieved 25 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)."
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## Further reading

[edit]

* 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).
* Kracht, Christian, The Ministry Of Truth: Kim Jong Il's North Korea, Feral House, October 2007, 132 pp, 88 color photographs, ISBN 978-1-932595-27-7.
* Lanʹkov, Andreĭ Nikolaevich. From Stalin to Kim Il Sung: The Formation of North Korea, 1945-1960 (Rutgers University Press, 2002).
* Lee Chong-Sik. "Kim Il-Song of North Korea." Asian Survey. Vol. 7, No. 6, June 1967. doi:10.2307/2642612. JSTOR 2642612
* 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
* NKIDP: Crisis and Confrontation on the Korean Peninsula: 1968–1969, A Critical Oral History
* 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].

## External links

[edit]

* Media related to Kim Il-sung at Wikimedia Commons
* Quotations related to Kim Il Sung at Wikiquote
* Nicolae Ceausescu's visit to Pyongyang, North Korea, in 1971
* "Conversations with Kim Il Sung" at the Wilson Center Digital Archive
* Kim Il Sung's works at Publications of the DPRK

Government offices

New title |  Premier of North Korea
1948–1972  | Succeeded by

Kim Il

Preceded by

Choe Yong-gon

as President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly |  President of North Korea
1972–1994  | Succeeded by

Yang Hyong-sop

as Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly
New title |  Chairman of the National Defence Commission
1972–1993  | Succeeded by

Kim Jong Il

Party political offices
New title |  Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea
1949–1966  | Himself as General Secretary
Chairman of the WPK Organization Bureau
1949–1951  | Succeeded by

Pak Yong-bin

Chairman of the WPK Central Military Commission
1950–1994  | Vacant

Title next held by

Kim Jong Il
General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea
1966–1994
Military offices
Preceded by

Choe Yong-gon

|  Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army
1950–1991  | Succeeded by

Kim Jong Il

* v
* t
* e

Kim Il Sung

* General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea
* President of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
* Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army

Politics|

* Korean War
* August faction incident
* Kapsan faction incident
* 10 Principles for the Establishment of a Monolithic Ideological System
* Chollima Movement
* Missile tests
* 1993
* Juche

Elections|

* 1947 North Korean parliamentary election
* 1948
* 1957
* 1962
* 1967
* 1972
* 1977
* 1982
* 1986
* 1990

Books|

* On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing Juche in Ideological Work (1955)
* Theses on the Socialist Rural Question in Our Country (1964)
* On the Five-point Policy for National Reunification (1973)
* 10-Point Programme for the Great Unity of the Whole Nation for the Reunification of the Country (1993)
* With the Century (1993)

Family|

* Kim Jong-suk (second wife)
* Kim Song-ae (third wife)
* Kim Jong Il (son)
* Kim Man-il (son)
* Kim Kyong-hui (daughter)
* Kim Pyong-il (son)
* Kim Jong-nam (grandson)
* Kim Jong-chul (grandson)
* Kim Jong Un (grandson)
* Kim Yo-jong (granddaughter)
* Kim Yong-ju (brother)
* Kim Hyong-jik (father)
* Kang Pan-sok (mother)
* Kim Hyong-gwon (uncle)
* Kim Bo-hyon (grandfather)

Related|

* Death and state funeral
* Death to America
* Eternal President
* Taewonsu
* North Korean cult of personality
* On-the-spot guidance
* Residences of North Korean leaders
* North Korean leaders' trains
* List of leaders of North Korea
* Kimilsungia
* Awards and decorations
* International trips
* Badges
* Portraits
* Named after
* Day of the Sun
* Baik Bong
* Battle of Pochonbo
* Down-with-Imperialism Union
* Titles

* Kim Jong Il →

* * *

* Category

Links to related articles

* v
* t
* e

Workers' Party of Korea

Central Committee|

| Leaders|

* Pak Hon-yong (1945)
* Kim Yong-bom (1945)
* Kim Il Sung (1945–1946)
* Kim Tu-bong (1946–1949)
* Kim Il Sung (1949–1994)
* Vacant (1994–1997)
* Kim Jong Il (1997–2011)
* Vacant (2011–2012)
* Kim Jong Un (2012–present)

|

Decision-making bodies|

* Personal Secretariat
* Presidium
* Politburo (General Secretary and Secretary)
* Secretariat
* Central Military Commission
* Central Auditing Commission

Departments and offices|

* Organisation and Guidance Department
* Propaganda and Agitation Department
* Cadres Department
* Light Industry Department
* Economic Affairs
* Science and Education Department
* International Department
* Military Department
* Machine-Building Industry
* Working Organisation Department
* Agriculture Department
* Party History Institute
* Document Archives
* Civil Defense Department
* Appeals Office
* Finance Accounting Department
* General Affairs Department
* United Front Department
* Office 39
* Kim Il Sung Higher Party School
* Publishing House

Publications|

* Rodong Sinmun
* Kulloja

National meetings|

| Congress|

* CPK / CPSK (1945)
* WPNK / WPSK (1946)
* 2nd (1948)
* 3rd (1956)
* 4th (1961)
* 5th (1970)
* 6th (1980)
* 7th (2016)
* 8th (2021)

|

Conference|

* 1st (1958) [ko]
* 2nd (1966)
* 3rd (2010)
* 4th (2012)

CC plenums|

* 1st Joint Plenum, 2nd CC (1949)
* 12th Plenum, 2nd CC (1953)
* 2nd Plenum, 3rd CC (1956)
* 14th Plenum, 4th CC (1966)
* 15th Plenum, 4th CC (1967)

Leadership sittings|

| Presidium|

* 1st WPNK / WPSK (1946)
* 2nd (1948)
* 3rd—none (1956)
* 4th (1961)
* 5th (1970)
* 6th (1980)
* 7th (2016)
* 8th (2021)

|

Politburo|

* CPK (1945)
* NKBB (1945)
* 1st WPNK / WPSK (1946)
* 2nd (1948)
* 3rd (1956)
* 4th (1961)
* 5th (1970)
* 6th (1980)
* 7th (2016)
* 8th (2021)

Secretariat|

* CPK (1945)
* 4th (1966)
* 5th (1970)
* 6th (1980)
* 7th (2016)
* 8th (2021)

Central Committee|

* CPK (1945)
* NKBB (1945)
* 1st WPNK / WPSK (1946)
* 2nd (1948)
* 3rd (1956)
* 4th (1961)
* 5th (1970)
* 6th (1980)
* 7th (2016)
* 8th (2021)

Auditing Commission|

* 1st WPNK / WPSK (1946)
* 2nd (1948)
* 3rd (1956)
* 4th (1961)
* 5th (1970)
* 6th (1980)
* 7th (2016)
* 8th (2021)

Military Commission|

* 4th (1962)
* 5th (1970)
* 6th (1980)
* 7th (2016)
* 8th (2021)

Control Commission|

* 1st WPNK / WPSK (1946)
* 2nd (1948)
* 3rd (1956)
* 4th (1961)
* 5th (1970)
* 6th (1980)
* 7th (2016)

Organisation Committee|

* CPK (1945)
* 1st (1946)
* 2nd (1948)
* 3rd (1956)

Wider organisation|

* Rules
* Korean People's Army
* Socialist Patriotic Youth League
* Korean Children's Union
* Socialist Women's Union of Korea
* General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea
* Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front

Ideology|

* Juche
* Songun
* Baekdu bloodline
* North Korean cult of personality
* Ten Principles for the Establishment of a Monolithic Ideological System

Abolished organs|

* Chairman and Vice Chairman
* Control Commission
* Executive Policy Bureau
* Organisation Committee

Predecessors|

* Party Foundation Day
* Communist Party of Korea
* North Korean Branch Bureau / Communist Party of North Korea
* Workers' Party of North Korea
* Workers' Party of South Korea

Category

* v
* t
* e

Supreme Leaders of North Korea

* Kim Il Sung (1948–1994)
* Kim Jong Il (1994–2011)
* Kim Jong Un (2011–)

* v
* t
* e

Heads of state of North Korea

Chairmen of the Standing Committee|

* Kim Tu-bong (1948–57)
* Choe Yong-gon (1957–72)

President of the Republic|

* Kim Il Sung (1972–94)

President of the Presidium|

* Kim Yong-nam (1998–2019)
* Choe Ryong-hae (2019–)

Chairman of National Defence|

* Kim Jong Il (2009–11)
* Kim Jong Un (2012–16)

President of State Affairs|

* Kim Jong Un (2016–)

* v
* t
* e

Premier of North Korea

* Kim Il Sung (as Prime Minister)
* Kim Il
* Pak Song-chol
* Ri Jong-ok
* Kang Song-san
* Ri Kun-mo
* Yon Hyong-muk
* Hong Song-nam
* Pak Pong-ju
* Kim Yong-il
* Choe Yong-rim
* Pak Pong-ju
* Kim Jae-ryong
* Kim Tok-hun

* v
* t
* e

Cold War

* United States
* Soviet Union
* NATO
* Warsaw Pact
* ANZUS
* METO
* SEATO
* NEATO
* Rio Pact
* Non-Aligned Movement

1940s|

* Morgenthau Plan
* Hukbalahap rebellion
* Jamaican political conflict
* Dekemvriana
* Guerrilla war in the Baltic states
* Operation Priboi
* Operation Jungle
* Occupation of the Baltic states
* Cursed soldiers
* Operation Unthinkable
* Gouzenko Affair
* Division of Korea
* Indonesian National Revolution
* Operation Masterdom
* Operation Beleaguer
* Operation Blacklist Forty
* Iran crisis of 1946
* Greek Civil War
* Baruch Plan
* Corfu Channel incident
* Turkish Straits crisis
* Restatement of Policy on Germany
* First Indochina War
* 1947 Polish parliamentary election
* Truman Doctrine
* Asian Relations Conference
* May 1947 crises
* Partition of India
* Indo-Pakistani war of 1947–1948
* 1947–1949 Palestine war
* 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine
* 1948 Arab–Israeli War
* 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight
* Marshall Plan
* Comecon
* 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état
* Incapacitation of the Allied Control Council
* Al-Wathbah uprising
* Tito–Stalin split
* Berlin Blockade
* Annexation of Hyderabad
* Madiun Affair
* Western betrayal
* Iron Curtain
* Eastern Bloc
* Western Bloc
* Chinese Civil War
* Chinese Communist Revolution
* Malayan Emergency
* March 1949 Syrian coup d'état
* Operation Valuable

1950s|

* Bamboo curtain
* McCarthyism
* Korean War
* Arab Cold War (1952–1979)
* 1952 Egyptian revolution
* Iraqi Intifada (1952)
* Mau Mau rebellion
* East German uprising of 1953
* 1953 Iranian coup d'état
* Pact of Madrid
* Bricker Amendment
* 1954 Syrian coup d'état
* Petrov Affair
* Domino theory
* 1954 Geneva Conference
* 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état
* Capture of the Tuapse
* First Taiwan Strait Crisis
* Jebel Akhdar War
* Algerian War
* Kashmir Princess
* Bandung Conference
* Geneva Summit (1955)
* Vietnam War
* Cyprus Emergency
* "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences"
* 1956 Poznań protests
* Hungarian Revolution of 1956
* Polish October
* Suez Crisis
* "We will bury you"
* Operation Gladio
* Syrian Crisis of 1957
* Sputnik crisis
* Ifni War
* Iraqi 14 July Revolution
* 1958 Lebanon crisis
* Second Taiwan Strait Crisis
* 1959 Mosul uprising
* 1959 Tibetan uprising
* Laotian Civil War
* Kitchen Debate
* Cuban Revolution
* Consolidation of the Cuban Revolution
* Sino-Soviet split

1960s|

* Congo Crisis
* Simba rebellion
* 1960 U-2 incident
* Bay of Pigs Invasion
* 1960 Turkish coup d'état
* Albanian–Soviet split
* Expulsion of Soviets from Albania
* Iraqi–Kurdish conflict
* First Iraqi–Kurdish War
* Berlin Crisis of 1961
* Berlin Wall
* Annexation of Goa
* Papua conflict
* Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation
* Sand War
* Portuguese Colonial War
* Angolan War of Independence
* Guinea-Bissau War of Independence
* Mozambican War of Independence
* Cuban Missile Crisis
* El Porteñazo
* Sino-Indian War
* Communist insurgency in Sarawak
* Ramadan Revolution
* Eritrean War of Independence
* North Yemen Civil War
* 1963 Syrian coup d'état
* Assassination of John F. Kennedy
* Aden Emergency
* Cyprus crisis of 1963–1964
* Shifta War
* Mexican Dirty War
* Tlatelolco massacre
* Guatemalan Civil War
* Colombian conflict
* 1964 Brazilian coup d'état
* Dominican Civil War
* Rhodesian Bush War
* Indonesian mass killings of 1965–1966
* Transition to the New Order (Indonesia)
* ASEAN Declaration
* 1966 Syrian coup d'état
* Cultural Revolution
* Argentine Revolution
* South African Border War
* Korean DMZ Conflict
* 12-3 incident
* Greek junta
* 1967 Hong Kong riots
* Years of Lead (Italy)
* Six-Day War
* War of Attrition
* Dhofar War
* Al-Wadiah War
* Nigerian Civil War
* Protests of 1968
* May 68
* Prague Spring
* USS Pueblo incident
* 1968 Polish political crisis
* 1968–1971 East Pakistan communist insurgency
* Communist insurgency in Malaysia
* Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
* 17 July Revolution
* 1968 Peruvian coup d'état
* Revolutionary Government
* 1969 Sudanese coup d'état
* 1969 Libyan revolution
* Goulash Communism
* Sino-Soviet border conflict
* New People's Army rebellion

1970s|

* Détente
* Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
* Black September
* Alcora Exercise
* Corrective Movement (Syria)
* Western Sahara conflict
* Cambodian Civil War
* Communist insurgency in Thailand
* 1970 Polish protests
* Koza riot
* Realpolitik
* Ping-pong diplomacy
* 1971 JVP insurrection
* Corrective revolution (Egypt)
* 1971 Turkish military memorandum
* 1971 Sudanese coup d'état
* 1971 Bolivian coup d'état
* Four Power Agreement on Berlin
* Bangladesh Liberation War
* 1972 visit by Richard Nixon to China
* North Yemen-South Yemen Border conflict of 1972
* First Yemenite War
* Munich massacre
* 1972–1975 Bangladesh insurgency
* Eritrean Civil Wars
* 1973 Uruguayan coup d'état
* 1973 Afghan coup d'état
* 1973 Chilean coup d'état
* Yom Kippur War
* 1973 oil crisis
* Carnation Revolution
* Spanish transition to democracy
* Metapolitefsi
* Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
* Second Iraqi–Kurdish War
* Turkish invasion of Cyprus
* 15 August 1975 Bangladeshi coup d'état
* Siege of Dhaka (1975)
* Sipahi-Janata revolution
* Angolan Civil War
* Cambodian genocide
* June 1976 protests
* Mozambican Civil War
* Oromo conflict
* Ogaden War
* 1978 Somali coup attempt
* Western Sahara War
* Ethiopian Civil War
* Lebanese Civil War
* Sino-Albanian split
* Third Indochina War
* Cambodian–Vietnamese War
* Cambodian conflict
* Operation Condor
* Dirty War (Argentina)
* 1976 Argentine coup d'état
* Egyptian–Libyan War
* German Autumn
* Korean Air Lines Flight 902
* Nicaraguan Revolution
* Uganda–Tanzania War
* NDF Rebellion
* Chadian–Libyan War
* Second Yemenite War
* Grand Mosque seizure
* Iranian revolution
* Saur Revolution
* Sino-Vietnamese War
* New Jewel Movement
* 1979 Herat uprising
* Seven Days to the River Rhine
* Struggle against political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union

1980s|

* Salvadoran Civil War
* Soviet–Afghan War
* 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics boycotts
* Gera Demands
* Peruvian Revolution
* Gdańsk Agreement
* Solidarity
* Eritrean Civil Wars
* 1980 Turkish coup d'état
* Ugandan Bush War
* Gulf of Sidra incident
* Martial law in Poland
* Casamance conflict
* Falklands War
* 1982 Ethiopian–Somali Border War
* Ndogboyosoi War
* United States invasion of Grenada
* Able Archer 83
* Star Wars
* 1985 Geneva Summit
* Iran–Iraq War
* Somali Rebellion
* Reykjavík Summit
* 1986 Black Sea incident
* South Yemen civil war
* Toyota War
* 1987 Lieyu massacre
* Operation Denver
* 1987–1989 JVP insurrection
* Lord's Resistance Army insurgency
* 1988 Black Sea bumping incident
* 8888 Uprising
* Solidarity (Soviet reaction)
* Contras
* Central American crisis
* Operation RYAN
* Korean Air Lines Flight 007
* People Power Revolution
* Glasnost
* Perestroika
* Bougainville conflict
* First Nagorno-Karabakh War
* Afghan Civil War
* United States invasion of Panama
* 1988 Polish strikes
* Polish Round Table Agreement
* 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre
* Revolutions of 1989
* Fall of the Berlin Wall
* Fall of the inner German border
* Velvet Revolution
* Romanian Revolution
* Peaceful Revolution

1990s|

* Mongolian Revolution of 1990
* Min Ping Yu No. 5540 incident
* Gulf War
* Min Ping Yu No. 5202
* German reunification
* Yemeni unification
* Fall of communism in Albania
* Breakup of Yugoslavia
* Dissolution of the Soviet Union
* 1991 August Coup
* Dissolution of Czechoslovakia

Frozen conflicts|

* Abkhazia
* China-Taiwan
* Korea
* Kosovo
* South Ossetia
* Transnistria
* Sino-Indian border dispute
* North Borneo dispute

Foreign policy|

* Truman Doctrine
* Containment
* Eisenhower Doctrine
* Domino theory
* Hallstein Doctrine
* Kennedy Doctrine
* Peaceful coexistence
* Ostpolitik
* Johnson Doctrine
* Brezhnev Doctrine
* Nixon Doctrine
* Ulbricht Doctrine
* Carter Doctrine
* Reagan Doctrine
* Rollback
* Kinmen Agreement

Ideologies|

| Capitalism|

* Liberalism
* Chicago school
* Conservatism
* American conservatism
* Keynesianism
* Libertarianism
* Monetarism
* Neoclassical economics
* Reaganomics
* Supply-side economics
* Democratic capitalism

|

Socialism|

* Communism
* Marxism–Leninism
* Castroism
* Eurocommunism
* Guevarism
* Hoxhaism
* Juche
* Ho Chi Minh Thought
* Maoism
* Trotskyism
* Stalinism
* Titoism

Other|

* Imperialism
* Anti-imperialism
* Nationalism
* Ultranationalism
* Chauvinism
* Ethnic nationalism
* Racism
* Zionism
* Anti-Zionism
* Fascism
* Neo-Nazism
* Islamism
* Totalitarianism
* Authoritarianism
* Autocracy
* Liberal democracy
* Illiberal democracy
* Guided democracy
* Social democracy
* Third-worldism
* White supremacy
* White nationalism
* White separatism
* Apartheid

Organizations|

* NATO
* SEATO
* METO
* EEC
* Warsaw Pact
* Comecon
* Non-Aligned Movement
* NN States
* ASEAN
* SAARC
* Safari Club

Propaganda|

| Pro-communist|

* Active measures
* Izvestia
* Neues Deutschland
* Pravda
* Radio Moscow
* Rudé právo
* Trybuna Ludu
* TASS
* Soviet Life

|

Pro-Western|

* Amerika
* Crusade for Freedom
* Paix et Liberté
* Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

* Red Scare
* Voice of America

Technological
competition|

* Arms race
* Nuclear arms race
* Space Race

Historians|

* Gar Alperovitz
* Thomas A. Bailey
* Michael Beschloss
* Archie Brown
* Warren H. Carroll
* Adrian Cioroianu
* John Costello
* Michael Cox
* Nicholas J. Cull
* Norman Davies
* Willem Drees
* Robert D. English
* Herbert Feis
* Robert Hugh Ferrell
* André Fontaine
* Anneli Ute Gabanyi
* John Lewis Gaddis
* Lloyd Gardner
* Timothy Garton Ash
* Gabriel Gorodetsky
* Fred Halliday
* Jussi Hanhimäki
* John Earl Haynes
* Patrick J. Hearden
* Tvrtko Jakovina
* Tony Judt
* Harvey Klehr
* Gabriel Kolko
* Walter LaFeber
* Walter Laqueur
* Melvyn P. Leffler
* Geir Lundestad
* Vojtech Mastny
* Jack F. Matlock Jr.
* Thomas J. McCormick
* Timothy Naftali
* Marius Oprea
* David S. Painter
* William B. Pickett
* Ronald E. Powaski
* Yakov M. Rabkin
* M. E. Sarotte
* Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.
* Ellen Schrecker
* Giles Scott-Smith
* Shen Zhihua
* Timothy Snyder
* Athan Theoharis
* Andrew Thorpe
* Vladimir Tismăneanu
* Patrick Vaughan
* Alex von Tunzelmann
* Odd Arne Westad
* William Appleman Williams
* Jonathan Reed Winkler
* Rudolph Winnacker
* Ken Young

Espionage and
intelligence|

* List of Eastern Bloc agents in the United States
* Soviet espionage in the United States
* Russian espionage in the United States
* American espionage in the Soviet Union and Russian Federation
* CIA and the Cultural Cold War
* CIA
* MI5
* MI6
* United States involvement in regime change
* Soviet involvement in regime change
* MVD
* KGB
* Stasi

See also|

* Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War
* Soviet Union–United States relations
* Soviet Union–United States summits
* Russia–NATO relations
* War on terror
* Brinkmanship
* Second Cold War
* Russian Revolution

* Category
* List of conflicts
* Timeline

* v
* t
* e

Select[α] family tree of North Korea's ruling Kim family[β][γ][δ][ε]

| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Kim Song-ryeong
1810–1899

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| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Kim Ung-u
1848–1878
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Kim Bo-hyon
1871–1955
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Kim Hyong-jik
1894–1926| | Kang Pan-sok
1892–1932

| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Kim Jong-suk
1917–1949| |
Kim Il Sung
1912–1994| | Kim Song-ae
1924–2014| | Kim Yong-ju
1920–2021
| | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Kim Young-sook
1947–| | | Song Hye-rim
1937–2002| |
Kim Jong Il
1941?[ζ]–2011| | Ko Yong-hui
1952–2004| | Kim Ok
1964–| | Kim Kyong-hui
1946–| | Jang Song-thaek
1946–2013?| | Kim Pyong Il
1954–
| | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Kim Sol-song
1974–| | Kim Jong-nam
1971–2017| | Kim Jong-chul
1981–| |
Kim Jong Un
1983?[η]–| | Ri Sol-ju
c. 1986–| | Kim Yo-jong
1987–

| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | Kim Han-sol
1995–| | | | | | | | Kim Ju-ae
c. 2012[θ]–

Notes:

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 of Kim Jong Suk), Kim Kyong-jin (1952-; child of Kim 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.
2. ^ 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. See Korean romanization for more information.
3. ^ Huss, Kan; Frost, Clay. "North Korea's First Family: Mapping the personal and political drama of the Kim clan". msnbc.com. Archived from the original on 4 February 2012. Retrieved 20 January 2013. (Confirms many, but not all, of the birth and death years. See individual articles for more references.)
4. ^ Yan, Holly (16 February 2017). "The world's most mysterious family tree: Kim Jong Un's secretive dynasty is full of drama, death". Design by Alberto Mier. CNN. Retrieved 16 February 2017.
5. ^ Lee, Sung-Yoon (2023). "The Mount Paektu Dynasty (Family Tree)". The Sister: The extraordinary story of Kim Yo Jong, the most powerful woman in North Korea. United Kingdom: Macmillan. p. x-xi. ISBN 9781529073539.
6. ^ Official North Korean biographies of Kim Jong Il list his birth year as 1942. The Korean calendar is based upon the Chinese 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.
7. ^ Official North Korean biographies of Kim Jong Un list his birth year as 1982. The Korean calendar is based upon the Chinese 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.
8. ^ Birth year for Kim Ju-ae is not publicly known. She may have been born in either late 2012 or early 2013.

* v
* t
* e

Kim family of North Korea

* Kim Il Sung (1912–1994)
* Kim Jong Il (1941–2011)
* Kim Jong Un (1983–)

Great Grandparents|

* Kim-Kim (North Korea) (Kim Il Sung's Great-Great-Great-Great-Great Grandfather)
* Kim Gusta-Io I (Kim Il Sung's Great-Great-Great-Great Grandfather)
* Kim Ugu-io (Kim Il Sung's Great-Great-Great Grandfather)
* Sal Sol-jan (Kim Il Sung's Great-Great-Great Grandmother)
* Song-ryong Kim (Kim Il Sung's Great Great Grandfather)
* Hyon-jik Na (Kim Il Sung's Great Great Grandmother)
* Kim Ung-u (Kim Il Sung's Great grandfather)
* Lady Lee (North Korea) (Kim Il Sung's Great Grandmother)

Great Grand Relatives|

* Kim Gusta-io II (Kim Il Sung's Great-Great-Great Uncle)
* Rak Ja-sel (Kim Il Sung's Great-Great-Great-Aunt)
* Kim Gus-tal (Kim Il Sung's Great-Great-Great Cousin)
* Kim Ul-ae (Kim Il Sung's Great-Great-Great Nephew)
* Jong-su Kim (Kim Il Sung's Great-Great Uncle)
* In-sok Kim (Kim Il Sung's Great-Great Uncle)

Pre-Il Sung|

* Lee Bo-ik (Kim Il Sung's grandmother)
* Kim Bo-hyon (Kim Il Sung's grandfather)
* Kim Hyong-jik (Kim Il Sung's father)
* Kang Pan-sok (Kim Il Sung's mother)
* Kim Hyong-jik (Kim Il Sung's Uncle)
* Kim Hyong-rok (Kim Il Sung's Uncle)
* Kim Hyong-gwon (Kim Il Sung's Uncle)
* Kim Gu-il (Kim Il Sung's Uncle)
* Kim Hyong-sil (Kim Il Sung's Uncle)
* Kim Hyong-bok (Kim Il Sung's Uncle)

1st generation|

* Kim Jong-suk (Kim Il Sung's first wife, Jong Il's mother)
* Kim Yong-ju (Kim Il Sung's brother)
* Kim Chol-ju (Kim Il Sung's brother)
* Kim Song-ae (Kim Il Sung's second wife)

2nd generation|

* Hong Il-chon (Kim Jong Il's first wife, divorced)
* Song Hye-rim (Kim Jong Il's first mistress)
* Kim Man-il (Kim Jong Il's brother)
* Jang Song-thaek (Kim Jong Il's brother-in-law)
* Kim Kyong-hui (Kim Jong Il's sister)
* Kim Young-sook (Kim Jong Il's wife)
* Ko Yong-hui (Kim Jong Il's second mistress, Jong Un's mother)
* Kim Pyong Il (Kim Jong Il's half-brother)
* Kim Ok (Kim Jong Il's third mistress)

3rd generation|

* Kim Yo-jong (Kim Jong Un's sister)
* Kim Jong-chul (Kim Jong Un's brother)
* Kim Sul-song (Kim Jong Un's half-sister)
* Kim Jong-nam (Kim Jong Un's half-brother)
* Ri Sol-ju (Kim Jong Un's wife)

4th generation|

* Kim Ju-ae (Kim Jong Un's daughter)
* Kim Han-sol (Kim Jong-nam's son)

* v
* t
* e

Commanders of the Korean People's Army

Commanders-in-Chief|

* Choe Yong-gon (1948–50)
* Kim Il Sung (1950–91)
* Kim Jong Il (1991–2011)
* Kim Jong Un (2011–present)

Ministry of Defence|

* Choe Yong-gon (1948–57)
* Kim Kwang-hyop (1957–62)
* Kim Chang-bong (1962–68)
* Choe Hyon (1968–76)
* O Jin-u (1976–95)
* Choe Kwang (1995–97)
* Kim Il-chol (1997–2009)
* Kim Yong-chun (2009–12)
* Kim Jong-gak (2012)
* Kim Kyok-sik (2012–13)
* Jang Jong-nam (2013–14)
* Hyon Yong-chol (2014–15)
* Unknown (2015)
* Pak Yong-sik (2015–18)
* No Kwang-chol (2018–19)
* Kim Jong-gwan (2019–21)
* Ri Yong-gil (2021–22)
* Kang Sun-nam (2022–24)
* No Kwang-chol (2024–present)

Chiefs of the General Staff|

* Kang Kon (1948–50)
* Nam Il (1950–53)
* Kim Kwang-hyop (1953–57)
* Lee Kwon-mu (1957–59)
* Kim Chang-bong (1959–62)
* Choe Kwang (1962–68)
* O Jin-u (1968–79)
* O Kuk-ryol (1979–88)
* Choe Kwang (1988–95)
* Kim Yong-chun (1995–2007)
* Kim Kyok-sik (2007–09)
* Ri Yong-ho (2009–12)
* Hyon Yong-chol (2012–13)
* Kim Kyok-sik (2013)
* Ri Yong-gil (2013–16)
* Ri Myong-su (2016–18)
* Ri Yong-gil (2018–19)
* Pak Jong-chon (2019–21)
* Rim Kwang-il (2021–22)
* Ri Thae-sop (2022)
* Park Su-il (2022–23)
* Ri Yong-gil (2023–present)

Italics indicate interim officeholder

* v
* t
* e

Marshals of North Korea

Generalissimos of the DPRK|

* Kim Il Sung
* Kim Jong Il
* Kim Jong Un

Marshals of the Korean People's Army|

* O Jin-u
* Choe Kwang
* Ri Ul-sol
* Kim Yong-chun
* Hyon Chol-hae
* Ri Pyong-chol
* Pak Jong-chon

Vice-Marshals of the Korean People's Army|

* Choe Yong-gon
* Ju To-il
* Choe In-dok
* Paek Hak-rim
* Ri Tu-ik
* Kim Pong-ryul
* Kim Kwang-jin
* Kim Ik-hyon
* Jo Myong-rok
* Ri Ha-il
* Kim Il-chol
* Jon Jae-son
* Pak Ki-so
* Ri Jong-san
* Kim Ryong-yon
* Ri Yong-mu
* Jang Song-u
* Ri Yong-ho
* Kim Jong-gak
* Choe Ryong-hae
* Hyon Yong-chol
* Hwang Pyong-so
* Ri Myong-su
* Kim Jong-gwan
* Kwon Yong-jin
* Ri Yong-gil

Category:North Korean generals

Authority control databases

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Academics|

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People|

* Trove
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Other|

* IdRef
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*[m.]: married
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template
*[c.]: circa