Kim Il-sung

Kim Il-sung (April 15, 1912–July 8, 1994) was a Korean Communist politician and the ruler of North Korea from 1948 until his death. He held the posts of Prime Minister from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to 1994, but the real source of his power was his post as General Secretary of the Korean Workers' Party. He is noted for the extent of his personality cult: North Korea officially refers to him as the Great Leader and he is enshrined in the constitution as the country's "eternal President." His birthday is a public holiday in North Korea.

Rise to power

Kim's early biography is the subject of considerable debate among historians. Much of the early records of his life come from his own personal accounts, or official North Korean government publications, which are considered to be of questionable validity. Nevertheless, there is an emerging consensus on at least the basic story of his early life, thanks to the corroboration of newly emerging witnesses from the period.

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Kim, the eldest of the three sons of Kim Hyong-jik and Kang Pan-sok, was born Kim S?ng-ju, probably in a village at Mangyongdae, near Pyongyang in northern Korea, then under Japanese occupation. Kim's family were active in opposition to the Japanese, and in 1920 they had to escape to China. Kim was sent to a school in Jilin, but his formal education ended when he was arrested and jailed for subversive activities. He joined various anti-Japanese guerilla groups in northern China, eventually becoming a member of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army, a guerrilla group led by the Communist Party of China.

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Kim fought in this unit from about 1935, rising in the ranks and becoming one of its commanders in 1941, when the Japanese drove the guerillas from northern China. During this period he adopted the name Kim Il-sung. He escaped to the Soviet Union and was sent to a camp near Khabarovsk, where the Korean Communist guerillas were retrained by the Soviets and Kim became a Captain in the Soviet Red Army.

Related Topics:
1935 - 1941 - Soviet Union - Khabarovsk - Captain - Red Army

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The Korean Communist Party was founded in 1925, but soon was disbanded due to internal strife. In 1931 Kim joined the Chinese Communist Party. When Kim returned to Korea in September 1945 with the Soviet occupation forces, he was installed by the Soviets as head of the Provisional People's Committee, but he was not at this time the head of the Communist Party, whose headquarters were in Seoul in the American-occupied south. (See the article Korean Workers' Party for more historical details on Kim's rise.)

Related Topics:
1925 - 1931 - Chinese Communist Party - 1945 - Seoul - American - Korean Workers' Party

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