Kim Il Sung

Kim Il Sung (1912-1994), Communist dictator of North Korea (1948-1994). Originally named Kim Song Ju, he was born on a farm near P'yǒngyang; he migrated with his family to Dongbei in 1926. There he joined the Korean Communist party (1931) and fought the Japanese as a guerrilla. Sent to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics for military training, he took the name of a legendary patriot. He led a Korean unit in the Red Army during World War II, and returned with the Soviet occupation forces after the war to set up a puppet regime in the north of Korea. By 1948 the Communists were well entrenched, and Kim became premier of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. His attempt to extend his rule to the south resulted in the Korean War (1950-1953). After the war, Kim eliminated his last rivals and set out, with some success, to improve the country's economy, creating at the same time a cult of his own personality. First elected president of North Korea in 1972, Kim was re-elected to a four-year term in May 1990. Until his death on July 8, 1994, he maintained North Korea as a last bastion of unregenerate Stalinism, supporting terrorism, a covert nuclear programme, and other measures designed to menace and destabilize South Korea. Under his rule North Korean society remained heavily regimented, indoctrinated, and rigorously policed. The centrally planned economy appeared to be collapsing shortly before his death.