Kim Il Sung

Born April 15, 1912
P'yongi, Korea
Died July 7, 1994
North Korea

Chief of state of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Like many communist countries, political authority in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) is split between the government and a powerful communist party, the Korean Workers' Party. Kim Il Sung was premier and then president of the North Korean government and also the general secretary (leader) of the Korean Workers' Party from the foundation of the country in 1948. Holding the two most powerful positions in the country, he was the absolute ruler of North Korea for forty-six years, until his death in 1994. Developing a "cult of personality" around himself as a ruler of almost godlike stature, the "Great Leader" of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea governed his country with an iron grip.

Childhood of exile in China

Kim Il Sung was born Kim Sung-ju (Kim Sung-chu) on April 15, 1912, the son of a schoolmaster in Pyongyang in northeastern Korea. Korea was annexed by Japan (incorporated and forcibly ruled as part of Japan) two years before Kim's birth. Japan's colonial domination become progressively harsher, and in about 1925 Kim fled with his parents to Manchuria, an area of northern China.

Kim spent the next fouteen years in Manchuria, attending middle school in Kirin. At the age of seventeen, he was arrested for belonging to a radical, communist youth organization. (Communism is a set of political beliefs that advocates the elimination of private property, a system in which goods are owned by the community as a whole rather than by specific individuals and are available to all as needed.) After his release from prison, he fought as a guerrilla (a warrior in a small band that fights the larger enemy with ambushes and surprise attacks) against the Japanese in the Yalu River region that marks the border between Korea and Manchuria. During this time he took the name Kim Il Sung, the name of a legendary anti-Japanese fighter from earlier in the century. Official North Korean biographies have exaggerated his role in the combat. According to one biography, Kim fought Japanese-Manchurian forces from 1932 to 1945 more than one hundred thousand times, never losing a single engagement. This means Kim fought more than twenty battles every single day in this period! Despite the doubtful numbers, Kim was an important member of the Korean movement that helped the Chinese Communists fight the Japanese in Manchuria in the 1930s.

Kim was forced to flee Manchuria for the Soviet Union around 1940, when Japanese imperial forces shattered the Chinese guerrillas with whom he was fighting. (The Soviet Union was the first communist country and was made up of fifteen republics, including Russia, and is sometimes simply called Russia. It existed as a unified country from 1922 to 1991.) In Russia, Kim received his military and political training at the Communist Party school in Khabarovsk in the Soviet Far East. He attained the rank of major in the Soviet army and, according to some accounts, fought with the Russians in Europe in World War II (1939–45).

Home to lead Korea

When the Japanese were defeated to end World War II in August 1945, the general order for the Japanese surrender included an arrangement for Korea in which the Americans were to accept the Japanese surrender south of the 38th parallel (the dividing line between northern and southern Korea, at 38 degrees north latitude), and the Soviets, who were already on the Korean border, would receive the surrender north of it. Kim accompanied the Soviet army to Pyongyang in the northern section of Korea in October, dressed in the uniform of the Soviet army.

Three distinct groupings of communists emerged in North Korea at this time: the Soviet-aligned group, including those Koreans who had returned from the Soviet Union; the Chinese-oriented, or the Yenan, faction, composed of those who had returned from China; and the domestic group, who had opposed the Japanese colonial rule within Korea. Meanwhile, in the southern section of the country, the United Nations (UN) was sponsoring elections in Korea, with the idea that Korea would become independent after a leader was elected. (The UN was founded in 1945 by the Allies to maintain worldwide peace and to develop friendly relations among countries.) The northern Koreans and the Soviets, claiming that the UN did not have the authority to determine the future of Korea, refused to take part in the elections. The vote was held in May 1948 nonetheless—without the northern Koreans —and a new government to rule over all of Korea, the Republic of Korea, was established.

Later in 1948, as the Soviets prepared to withdraw their troops from Korea, the northern authorities held an election that established a new government, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Kim Il Sung became its premier. Kim was picked by local Soviet commanders in Pyongyang to be northern Korea's leader in part because they knew few other Koreans. Kim's appeal to Koreans was that he had ties to both the Chinese and the Russians and would probably not answer solely to one or the other. Because Seoul, in the south, was the national capital, many of the Korean communist leaders, Pak Hön-yöng (1900–1955; see entry) in particular, had remained there after liberation trying to work with the American Military Governmen. Thus they were not in the north when the leadership positions were being filled. It is not clear if Kim's rise to power was the result of a decision made by the Soviets or because of his effective organization of the People's Committees (units of local government the Korean people had established when the Japanese were defeated) or both. Nonetheless, the Soviets did support Kim as he took on increasing leadership.

Dreams of reunifying Korea

As premier of North Korea, Kim gave passionate speeches about the reunification of the country, and notably not about communism. From the beginning, Kim wished to sweep across the 38th parallel, conquer South Korea, and reunify the country. Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin (1879–1953; see entry), who was engaged in intense tensions with Western nations in European countries, had no wish to risk a war with the United States in Korea. By telegrams and in person, Kim convinced Stalin to at least give his approval to the venture, saying that he could finish the conflict and unify Korea in three weeks. Kim had been led to believe, probably through his vice premier Pak Hön-yöng, that a force of about half a million members of the South Korean Labor Party were waiting in the south to join with North Korean forces in a war for reunification. He did not believe that the United States would intervene. Stalin at last gave his approval.

Kim invaded South Korea in June 1950, with arms purchased from, or left behind by, the Soviets. The invasion started out very successfully, and even when U.S. troops unexpectedly appeared, they were unable to hold a line against the well-trained North Korean People's Army (NKPA). By September, however, more and more United Nations troops were entering the battle, and the NKPA was driven north. Kim turned for help to the chairman of the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung; 1893–1976; see entry). In October Mao, concerned about having U.S. troops so close to home, sent massive Chinese troops to North Korea's aid.

The cease-fire seven months later found the opposing forces near the war's starting point, the 38th parallel; Kim's reunification dreams were dashed. He would never give up hope of eliminating the South Korean (Republic of Korea) government, but there would never be another chance for reunification within his lifetime.

Democratic People's Republic of Korea after the war

After the Korean War ended in 1953, Kim established a rigid, militarized communist government that allowed no opposition. He ruled under the name "Great Leader," and placed himself in a position to be revered almost as a god by his people. Kim admired Stalin's methods and his bearing, and worked to develop his own status as an absolute ruler. As the "Great Leader" of the DPRK, he had a very energetic personal presence and was an impressive speaker who regularly made unexpected "tours" all over the country. The New York Times reported that citizens were encouraged to devote two to four hours daily to "Kim Study," during which they would reflect on their leaders' teachings. Throughout the streets of Pyongyang, there are thirty thousand statues of Kim. His birthday was celebrated as the most important of national holidays.

Kim developed and advanced a doctrine of nationalist self-sufficiency, known as "juche," which proclaims that the Korean people are masters of their own destiny. Juche was Kim's attempt to apply the ideas behind German philosopher Karl Marx's communism to the unique Korean society. Kim repeatedly proved that he held the country in a tight control. For some time, his vision of the future worked. From 1953 until the 1970s, Kim emphasized heavy industry and collective farming, and he was able to push people to work long hours. During this period, North Korea was a model of state-controlled development, and was economically better off

than South Korea. Yet North Korea under Kim was a true dictatorship that did not permit disagreement with the government of any kind. Each of the country's twenty-two million people was classified according to their degree of loyalty to Kim. The "core class" (25 percent) lived in the big cities and received the best jobs, education, and food. The "wavering class" (50 percent) had second-rate jobs and homes, and their loyalty was monitored by internal security forces. The people in the "hostile class" were assigned to hard labor and most lived in remote villages. Dissent did not exist in North Korea, at least not out loud; according to Amnesty International, there were tens of thousands of dissidents and political enemies in concentration camps during Kim's reign, and untold numbers had been executed.

As an economic program juche began to decline in the 1970s. Kim's military spending reached 25 percent of the entire national budget (in South Korea, it was 4 percent); harvests declined; the Soviets no longer wanted to import North Korea's tractors and trucks; and public works spending increased greatly, most of it on monuments to Kim. For his sixtieth birthday in 1972, Kim erected a huge bronze statue, among other things; for his seventieth, it was an Arch of Triumph taller than the original in Paris, France, and the Tower of the Juche Idea, which consisted of 25,500 white granite blocks, one for each day of Kim's first seventy years.

Conflicts with Western powers

North Korea remained isolated from capitalism and the West longer than any other communist nation. (Capitalism, the economic system of the United States and most Western powers, is based on the idea that individuals, rather than the state, own property and businesses, and the cost and distribution of goods are determined by the free market. Capitalism is fundamentally at odds with communism, in which goods are owned by the community as a whole rather than by specific individuals and are available to all as needed.) The country has been involved in several terrorist attacks, including one against South Korea's president in 1968. A blown-up South Korean airliner has also been credited to North Korean terrorists. When, in 1968, the American ship the U.S.S. Pueblo was intercepted on a spying mission in North Korean waters, Kim managed to embarrass the United States by imprisoning the crew for eleven months. In 1993, with nuclear materiel in his country, possibly a bomb or even two, Kim announced that North Korea would withdraw from the longstanding international Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. On a visit to North Korea, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter managed to ease tensions, and new United Nations talks had begun when Kim died on July 8, 1994, in North Korea, of an apparent heart attack.

The depth and character of North Korea's mourning for Kim was difficult for Westerners to comprehend. A 273-member committee, chaired by his son, Kim Jong Il, organized the funeral in Pyongyang. An estimated two million North Koreans attended the three-and-a-half hour procession. After the mourning period, Kim was succeeded by his son Kim Jong Il, who had been placed in many key positions in the government as far back as 1980 and was already groomed for the public as the "Dear Leader."

Where to Learn More

Baik Bong. Kim Il Sung: Biography. 3 vols. Tokyo: Miraisha, 1969–70.

New York Times, July 10, 1994; July 11, 1994.

Newsweek, June 27, 1994.

Suh Dae-sook. Kim Il Sung: The North Korean Leader. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995.

Suh Dae-sook. The Korean Communist Movement, 1918–1948. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1967.

Time, June 13, 1994; June 27, 1994.

U.S. News & World Report, June 27, 1994.

Web sites

"Kim Il Sung, 15 April 1912–8 July 1994." [Online] http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/1461/kimilsung.htm (accessed on August 14, 2001).

Words to Know

annex: to take over a nation that was independent, making it a dependent part of another nation.

colonial domination: a repressive rule imposed upon one nation by another, more powerful, nation.

Communism: a system of government in which one party (usually the Communist Party) controls all property and goods and the means to produce and distribute them.

dissent: disagreement or difference of opinion.

guerrilla: a warrior who performs an irregular form of combat; in Korea it usually involved hiding in mountains, enlisting the help of the local population, and setting ambushes and surprise attacks to harass or even destroy regular armies.

reunification: the process of bringing back together the separate parts of something that was once a single unit; in Korea, this usually refers to the dream of a single Korea ruled under one government, no longer divided into two nations at the demarcation line.

38th parallel: the 38th degree of north latitude as it bisects the Korean Peninsula, chosen by Americans as the dividing line between what was to be Soviet-occupied North Korea and U.S.-occupied South Korea in 1945.

The Cult of Personality

The three major communist heads of state in the Korean War, Soviet premier Joseph Stalin (1879–1953), Communist Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong (1893–1976), and Democratic People's republic of Korea (North Korea) premier Kim Il Sung, all purposely developed a "cult of personality" around themselves. Cult of personality is the elevation of a leader to the level of godlike infallibility, an object of adoration and veneration to the people of his nation. This is achieved through constantly bombarding the people with praise for the leader's virtues and achievements through every form of communication and art available. Some communist ideology (the philosophy behind the system) revolves around the concept of a personality cult. In order for people to work together for the communal good, the theory goes, they must be motivated by a deep adoration and unquestioning enthusiasm for their one absolute leader.

Stalin was a pioneer in developing the cult of personality. His predecessor, Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924), had utterly opposed the idea. Lenin believed that the masses should be elevated, not the leader. But when Stalin was trying to stabilize his own power base after Lenin's death, he pursued the kind of religious adoration from the Russian people that had in the past been devoted to the Russian czar (or monarch). Stalin had his picture posted all over the Soviet Union. He rewrote history to take credit for Soviet achievements and to firmly associate himself with the beloved Lenin. Poems written at that time often sounded like hymns to Stalin, as the savior and father of the nation. The cult of personality allowed no dissent (disagreement). If artists or journalists did not worship him, they were often deported (sent out of the country), arrested, or even executed.

In his later years, Mao Zedong promoted himself as an almost religious figure in China. Some people began and ended their days praying to him. Every home had a picture or statue of Mao in it. His posters were all prepared to make him godlike, radiating light. Although Mao actively—and successfully—pursued the personality cult, the Chinese government functioned with input from many people. Mao's later periods of absolute rule alienated many people around him.

In the Soviet Union and China, the idea of the cult of personality was rejected after Stalin's deadly purges (elimination, often by murder) of enemies and Mao's brutal Cultural Revolution (1966–76). In 1956, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971) delivered a scathing speech against the cult of personality and Stalin's use of it, saying that "Stalin had so elevated himself above the party and above the nation that he ceased to consider either the central committee [government] or the [Communist] party." He also said that Stalin believed "he could decide all things alone and all he needed were statisticians; he treated all others in such a way that they could only listen to and praise him." Khrushchev later visited Mao and made a similar pronouncement about his use of the personality cult.

As has been noted by many historians and journalists, in many ways Kim Il Sung surpassed both Stalin and Mao with his own cult of personality campaign. This is particularly notable since the cult lasted after his death and well into the twenty-first century. In North Korea at the turn of the tweny-first century, every home had a picture of both Kim Il Sung and his son, Kim Jong Il, the new leader of North Korea. People bowed to these images morning and night. There were markers to Kim Il Sung, the "Dear Leader," everywhere throughout the country. His books—twenty-seven volumes of his teachings—provided the center of education in the nation. He was often called the "eternal" leader of North Korea, in effect, still ruling along with his son, the "Great Leader." Whether Kim Il Sung was so successful in his cult of personality because he was so thorough in establishing it—spending millions of dollars annually, instilling great fear of punishment for expressing contradicting opinions, touring the country personally and checking up on the people—or because the North Koreans believed in him as a great leader, will require the passage of time to understand.

Source: Modern History Sourcebook. "Nikita S. Khrushchev: The Secret Speech—On the Cult of Personality, 1956, Secret Speech Delivered by First Party Secretary at the Twentieth Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, February 25, 1956." [Online] http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1956khrushchev-secret1.html (accessed on August 14, 2001).