Kim Jong-il

Kim Jong-il (born February 16, 1941) has ruled North Korea since 1994. He succeeded his father, Kim Il-sung, who had led North Korea since 1948. Formerly styled as the Dear Leader {{ref|Formerly}}. Kim holds the positions of Chairman of the National Defense Committee and General Secretary of the Korean Workers' Party. His birthday is a public holiday in North Korea.

Rise to power

Like his father, Kim Jong Il is the center of a very extensive personality cult within North Korean society in which Kim is constantly praised and honored as a tremendous hero and great statesman. As a result, many facts regarding his early life are conflicting, with "official" state reports claiming one thing and independent sources often claiming another.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

According to Western and South Korean sources, Kim Jong-il was born in a small village of Viatskoe (or Viatsk), an army camp near Khabarovsk in the Soviet Union, where his father, Kim Il-sung, was both an important figure among Korean Communist exiles and a captain and battalion commander in the Soviet 88th Brigade, which was made up of Chinese and Korean guerrillas. Kim Jong-il's official biography maintains that he was born at Mount Paektu in northern Korea, and that he was born on February 16, 1942, but there has been speculation that he is slightly older. Kim Jong-il's mother was Kim Il-sung's first wife, Kim Jong-suk. South Korean sources claim that Kim Jong-Il was born on February 16, 1941, and that subsequently his "official" birth year was adjusted so as to be in harmony in terms of decades with that of his father, Kim Il-sung. During his youth in the Soviet Union he was known as Yuri Irsenowich Kim.

Related Topics:
South Korea - Viatsk - Khabarovsk - Soviet Union - Kim Il-sung - Mount Paektu - 1942 - Kim Jong-suk - 1941

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Kim was a young child when World War II ended. His father returned to Pyongyang in September 1945, and in late November the younger Kim returned to Korea via a Soviet ship that landed at Unggi. The family moved into a former Japanese officer's mansion in Pyongyang, with a garden and pool. The younger Kim's brother Shura Kim (also known as the first Kim Pyong-il) drowned there in 1947. In 1948 Kim Jong-il began primary school. In 1949 his mother died during labour.

Related Topics:
World War II - Pyongyang - 1945 - Unggi - Shura Kim - 1947 - 1948 - 1949

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Kim probably received most of his education in the People's Republic of China, where he was sent away from his father for greater safety during the Korean War. According to the official version, he graduated from Namsan School in Pyongyang, a special school for the children of communist party officials. He is later said to have attended Kim Il-sung University and to have majored in Political Economy, graduating in 1964. By the time of his graduation, his father, revered in the government's official pronouncements as "the Great Leader", had firmly consolidated control over the regime. He is also said to have received English language education at the University of Malta in the early 1970s, on his infrequent holidays in Malta as guest of Maltese Prime Minister Dom Mintoff. http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,866479,00.html

Related Topics:
People's Republic of China - Korean War - Pyongyang - Kim Il-sung University - 1964 - University of Malta - 1970s - Malta - Dom Mintoff

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After graduating in 1964, Kim Jong-il began his ascension through the ranks of the ruling Korean Workers' Party, working first in the party's elite Organization Department before being named a member of the Politburo in 1968. In 1969 he was appointed deputy director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department.

Related Topics:
Korean Workers' Party - 1968 - 1969

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The elder Kim had meanwhile remarried and had another son, Kim Pyong-il, sparking an intense rivalry between Kim Jong-il and his younger half-brother. It is unclear when Jong-il was chosen over Pyong-il, or whether Pyong-il was ever seriously considered as successor by his father. Kim Pyong-il was eventually posted to a series of distant embassies to keep the two half-brothers apart. Kim Pyong-il was later banished to Hungary as an ambassador. This was suspected to be because Kim Il-sung did not want a power struggle between his two sons.

Related Topics:
Kim Pyong-il - Hungary - Kim Il-sung

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1973, Kim was made Party secretary of organization and propaganda, and in 1974, he was officially designated his father's successor. During the next 15 years, he accumulated further positions, among them Minister of Culture and head of party operations against South Korea.

Related Topics:
1973 - 1974

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Kim gradually made his presence felt within the Korean Workers Party from the Seventh Plenum of the Fifth Central Committee in September 1973, leading the "Three Revolution Team" campaigns. He was often referred to as the "Party Center", due to his growing influence over the daily operations of the Party.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

By the time of the Sixth Party Congress in October 1980, Kim Jong-il's control of the Party operation was complete. He was given senior posts in the Politburo, the Military Commission and the party Secretariat. When he was made a member of the Seventh Supreme People's Assembly in February 1982, it had become clear to international observers that he was the heir apparent to succeed his father as the supreme leader of the DPRK.

Related Topics:
October - 1980 - Politburo - Secretariat - February - 1982

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

At this time Kim assumed the title "Dear Leader" and the government began building a personality cult around him patterned after that of his father, the "Great Leader". Kim Jong-il was regularly hailed by the media as the "peerless leader" and "the great successor to the revolutionary cause". He emerged as the most powerful figure behind his father in the DPRK.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1991, Kim was also named supreme commander of the North Korean armed forces. Since the Army is the real foundation of power in North Korea, this was a vital step. It appears that the veteran Defense Minister, Oh Jin-wu, one of Kim Il-sung's most loyal subordinates, engineered Kim Jong-il's acceptance by the Army as the next leader of the North Korea, despite his lack of military service. The only other possible leadership candidate, Prime Minister Kim Il (no relation), was removed from his posts in 1976. In 1992, Kim Il-sung publicly stated that his son was in charge of all internal affairs in North Korea.

Related Topics:
1991 - Oh Jin-wu - Kim Il - 1976 - 1992

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

By the 1980s, North Korea was in deep economic crisis as the economy stagnated, aggravated by Kim Il-sung's policy of juche (self-reliance), which cut the country off from almost all external trade, even with its traditional partners, the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. During this period, the DPRK resorted to increasingly desperate measures to raise hard currency and fend off its many enemies, and Kim Jong-il seems to have been responsible for some of the more bizarre of these, such as the kidnapping of people from Japan and the dealing of drugs through embassies.

Related Topics:
1980s - Juche - Soviet Union - People's Republic of China

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

South Korea accused Kim of ordering the 1983 Rangoon bombing in Rangoon, Burma (now Yangon, Myanmar), which killed 17 visiting South Korean officials, including four cabinet members, and another in 1987 which killed all 115 on board Korean Air Flight 858. No direct evidence has emerged to link Kim to the bombings. A North Korean agent confessed to planting a bomb in the case of the second.

Related Topics:
South Korea - 1983 - Rangoon bombing - Rangoon - Burma - Yangon - Myanmar - 1987 - Korean Air - Flight 858

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~