Kim Jong Il
Template:Short description Template:For Template:Family name hatnote Template:Pp-pc Template:Pp-move Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox officeholder Kim Jong IlTemplate:Efn (born Yuri Irsenovich Kim;Template:Efn 16 February 1941 – 17 December 2011) was a North Korean politician who was the second supreme leader of North Korea from the death of his father Kim Il Sung in 1994 until his death in 2011, when he was succeeded by his son, Kim Jong Un. Afterwards, Kim Jong Il was declared Eternal General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).
In the early 1980s, Kim had become the heir apparent for the leadership of North Korea, thus being established the Kim family, and he assumed important posts in party and army organizations. Kim succeeded his father and founder of North Korea, Kim Il Sung, following his death in 1994. Kim was the General Secretary of the WPK, WPK Presidium, WPK Central Military Commission, Chairman of the National Defence Commission (NDC) of North Korea and the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army (KPA), the fourth-largest standing army in the world.
Kim ruled North Korea as a repressive and totalitarian dictatorship.Template:Efn Kim assumed leadership during a period of catastrophic economic crisis amidst the dissolution of the Soviet Union, on which it was heavily dependent for trade in food and other supplies, which brought a famine. While the famine had ended by the late 1990s, food scarcity continued to be a problem throughout his tenure. Kim strengthened the role of the military by his Songun ("military-first") policies, making the army the central organizer of civil society. Kim's rule also saw tentative economic reforms, including the opening of the Kaesong Industrial Park in 2003. In April 2009, North Korea's constitution was amended to refer to him and his successors as the "supreme leader of the DPRK".
The most common colloquial title given to Kim during his lifetime was "Dear Leader" to distinguish him from his father Kim Il Sung, the "Great Leader". Following Kim's failure to appear at important public events in 2008, foreign observers assumed that Kim had either fallen seriously ill or died. On 19 December 2011, the North Korean government announced that he had died two days earlier, whereupon his third son, Kim Jong Un, was promoted to a senior position in the ruling WPK and succeeded him. After his death, alongside "Eternal General Secretary" of the WPK, Kim Jong Il was declared "Eternal Chairman" of the now defunct National Defence Commission, in keeping with the tradition of establishing eternal posts for the dead members of the Kim dynasty. North Korean media also began referring to Kim as "the General" (장군 Changgun), similar to his father's posthumous designation as "the [eternal] President".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Early life
[edit]Birth
[edit]
Soviet records show that Kim Jong Il was born Yuri Irsenovich Kim.<ref name="birthname">Template:Cite news
Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In literature, it is assumed that he was born in 1941 in either the camp of Vyatskoye, near Khabarovsk,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Failed verification or camp Voroshilov near Nikolsk.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> According to Lim Jae Cheon, Kim cannot have been born in Vyatskoye as Kim Il Sung's war records show that he arrived at Vyatskoye only in July 1942 and had been living in Voroshilov before, thus Kim Jong Il is generally agreed to have been born in Voroshilov.<ref name="Lim9–10">Template:Citation</ref> Kim's mother, Kim Jong Suk, was Kim Il Sung's first wife. Inside his family, he was nicknamed "Yura",<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> while his younger brother Kim Man Il (born Aleksandr Kim) was nicknamed "Shura".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Kim's official biography states he was born in a secret military camp on Paektu Mountain (Template:Korean; Paektusan Miryeong Gohyang jip) in Korea under Japanese rule on 16 February 1942.Template:Sfn According to one comrade of Kim's mother, Lee Min, word of Kim's birth first reached an army camp in Vyatskoye via radio and that both Kim and his mother did not return there until the following year.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Kim Jong Suk died in 1949 from an ectopic pregnancy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 1945, Kim was four years old when World War II ended and Korea regained independence from Japan. His father returned to Pyongyang that September, and in late November Jong-Il returned to Korea via a Soviet ship, landing at Sonbong. The family moved into a former Japanese officer's mansion in Pyongyang, with a garden and pool. Kim's brother drowned there in 1948 under mysterious circumstances.<ref name=post>Template:Cite book</ref>
Education
[edit]According to his official biography, Kim completed the course of general education between September 1950 and August 1960. He attended Primary School No. 4 and Middle School No. 1 (Namsan Higher Middle School) in Pyongyang.<ref name="OhHassig2004">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Sfn This is contested by foreign academics, who believe he is more likely to have received his early education in the People's Republic of China as a precaution to ensure his safety during the Korean War.<ref>Martin, Bradley K. (2004). Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader, New York: St. Martin's Press. Template:ISBN.</ref>Template:Page needed
Throughout his schooling, Kim was involved in politics. He was active in the Korean Children's Union and the Democratic Youth League of North Korea (DYL), taking part in study groups of Marxist political theory and other literature. In September 1957, he became vice-chairman of his middle school's DYL branch (the chairman had to be a teacher). He pursued a programme of anti-factionalism and attempted to encourage greater ideological education among his classmates.Template:Sfn
Kim is also said to have received English language education in Malta in the early 1970s<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> on his infrequent holidays there as a guest of Prime Minister Dom Mintoff.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The elder Kim had meanwhile remarried and had another son, Kim Pyong Il. Since 1988, Kim Pyong Il has served in a series of North Korean embassies in Europe and was the North Korean ambassador to Poland. Foreign commentators suspect that Kim Pyong Il was sent to these distant posts by his father in order to avoid a power struggle between his two sons.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Ascension to power
[edit]Initial career
[edit]Kim Jong Il officially joined the Workers' Party of Korea in July 1961.<ref name="ournation-school.com">Template:Cite web</ref> He rose up the ranks during the 1960s,<ref>Adrian Buzo, The Making of Modern Korea. London: Routledge Press, 2002, Template:ISBN, p. 127.</ref> and benefited greatly from the Kapsan faction incident around 1967, which was the last credible challenge to Kim Il Sung's sole rule.<ref>Lim Jae-Cheon, Leader Symbols and Personality Cult in North Korea: The Leader State. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2015, Template:ISBN.</ref> This incident marked the first time Kim Jong Il was – at age 26 – given official duties by his father, when Jong Il took part in the investigation and purges that followed the incident.<ref>Lim Jae-Cheon, Kim Jong-il's Leadership of North Korea. New York: Routledge, 2008, Template:ISBN, pp. 38–47.</ref>
In addition, Kim Jong Il gave a speech at the plenum; it was his first as a figure of authority. Kim Jong Il's name was also mentioned in public documents, possibly for the first time, indicating that Kim Il Sung might have already planned for Jong Il to succeed him as leader.<ref>Lim Jae-Cheon, Leader Symbols and Personality Cult in North Korea: The Leader State (New York: Taylor & Francis, 2015, Template:ISBN.</ref><ref name="Lim Jae-Cheon 2008">Lim Jae-Cheon, Kim Jong-il's Leadership of North Korea (New York: Routledge, 2008, Template:ISBN, pp. 38–47.</ref>
Only six months later, in an unscheduled meeting of the party, Kim Il Sung called for loyalty in the film industry that had betrayed him with An Act of Sincerity.Template:Efn Kim Jong Il himself announced that he was up to the task and thus begun his influential career in North Korean filmmaking,<ref name="Lim Jae-Cheon 2008"/> during which he made significant efforts to further intensify the personality cult of his father and attach himself to it.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In 1969, he produced a film adaptation of the North Korean opera Sea of Blood.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Kim Jong Il entered the Propaganda and Agitation Department in February 1966.<ref name="Armstrong2013">Template:Cite book</ref> becoming the chief in 1973, a position which he held until 1985.
Kim Jong Il's years in the PAD were marked by his effort to become an expert in the field of propaganda. Kim Jong Il's main contribution in the department was to devise the "monolithic ideological system", later codified as the Ten Principles for the Establishment of a Monolithic Ideological System. Kim's various efforts greatly benefited the North Korean cult of personality. During this time, the film director Choe Ik-gyu, a close confidant of his, also rose in the ranks of the PAD, becoming its vice director in 1972. Choe developed mass games, which would evolve into the Arirang Festival,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The department was important because of its role in mass mobilization of the populace. Kim Jong Il was known as a great fan of music, film, and theater since young age and his position within the department was natural fit.
Kim Jong Il was elected to the Central Committee in 1972 and became its secretary the following year.<ref name="ournation-school.com"/>
However, when Kim Il Sung began to contemplate the succession question in the early 1970s,<ref name="succession">Template:Citation</ref> it didn't seem certain that Kim Jong Il would be his successor.<ref name="rajongyil"/> There was Kim's uncle, Kim Yong-ju, who was once believed to be Kim Il Sung's eventual successor<ref>"The Losers in N. Korea's Ruling Family", Chosun Ilbo, 17 February 2011.</ref> but who had made several mistakes in the struggle for power, had serious flaws,<ref name="rajongyil"/> and was becoming increasingly marginalized.<ref name="memoirs">Hwang Jang Yop's Memoirs (2006)</ref> Then there was the threat posed by his paternal half-brother, Kim Pyong Il, whose mother, Kim Song-ae, wished to place her son in line for succession instead of Jong Il.<ref name="rajongyil"/>
Defector Hwang Jang Yop wrote in his memoirs,<ref name="successor">"Kim Jong Il Secures Position as Successor". Daily NK. 6 February 2011. Archived from original on 13 August 2013. Retrieved 23 January 2025.</ref> Template:Blockquote
In February 1974, Kim Yong-ju was criticized by Kim Il Sung at a party conference and demoted to vice-premier. Kim Yong-ju's allies were removed and eventually he was placed under house arrest, where he remained until 1993.<ref name="successor"/> In 1976, Kim Song-ae lost her position as chair of the KDWL, which was her vital power base.<ref>Jang Jin-sung: Dear Leader: Poet, Spy, Escapee – A Look Inside North Korea, 2014.</ref> And in 1979, Kim Pyong Il began a series of diplomatic postings in Europe, arranged so as then he couldn't influence politics in North Korea.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Kim Pyong Il only returned to North Korea in 2019.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
According to Kim Jong Il's official biography, the Central Committee already appointed him successor to Kim Il Sung in 1974. The first public confirmation of Kim Jong Il's position as successor came in 1977, when in a booklet he was designated as Kim Il Sung's only heir.<ref name="succession" />
Heir apparent
[edit]Template:More citations needed section By the time of the Sixth Party Congress in October 1980, Kim's control of the Party operation was complete. He was given senior posts in the Presidium, the Military Commission and the party Secretariat. When he was made a member of the Seventh Supreme People's Assembly in February 1982, international observers deemed him the heir apparent of North Korea. Prior to 1980, he had no public profile and was referred to only as the "Party Centre".Template:Sfn At this time Kim assumed the title "Dear Leader" (Template:Korean),<ref name="dear">Template:Cite web</ref> and the government began building a personality cult around him patterned after that of his father, the "Great Leader". Kim was regularly hailed by the media as the "fearless leader" and "the great successor to the revolutionary cause". He emerged as the most powerful figure behind his father in North Korea.
By the 1980s, North Korea began to experience severe economic stagnation. Kim Il Sung's policy of Juche (self-reliance) cut the country off from almost all external trade, even with its traditional partners, the Soviet Union and China. South Korea accused Kim of ordering the 1983 bombing in Rangoon, Burma which killed 17 visiting South Korean officials, including four cabinet members, and another in 1987 which killed all 115 onboard Korean Air Flight 858.<ref name="yangon">"North Korea: Nuclear Standoff" Template:Webarchive, The Online NewsHour, PBS, 19 October 2006.</ref> A North Korean agent, Kim Hyon Hui, confessed to planting a bomb in the case of the second, saying the operation was ordered by Kim personally.<ref name="hyonhui">Template:Cite news</ref>
On 24 December 1991, Kim was also named Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> Defence Minister Oh Jin Wu, one of Kim Il Sung's most loyal subordinates, engineered Kim's acceptance by the Army as the next leader of North Korea, despite his lack of military service. In 1992, Kim Il Sung publicly stated that his son was in charge of all internal affairs in the Democratic People's Republic.
In 1992, radio broadcasts started referring to him as the "Dear Father", instead of the "Dear Leader", suggesting a promotion. His 51st birthday in February was the occasion for massive celebrations, exceeded only by those for the 80th birthday of Kim Il Sung himself on 15 April that same year.
In 1992, Kim made his first and only public speech during a military parade for the KPA's 60th anniversary and said:<ref name="Lim2008">Template:Cite book</ref> "Glory to the officers and soldiers of the heroic Korean People's Army!".<ref name="Jeffries2012">Template:Cite book</ref> These words were followed by a loud applause and cheers by the crowd at Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung Square where the parade was held.
Kim was named Chairman of the National Defence Commission on 9 April 1993, making him day-to-day commander of the armed forces.<ref name="nkle_20th">Template:Cite web</ref>
According to defector Hwang Jang Yop, the North Korean government system became even more centralized and autocratic during the 1980s and 1990s under Kim than it had been under his father. In one example explained by Hwang, although Kim Il Sung required his ministers to be loyal to him, he nonetheless and frequently sought their advice during decision-making. In contrast, Kim Jong Il demanded absolute obedience and agreement from his ministers and party officials with no advice or compromise, and he viewed any slight deviation from his thinking as a sign of disloyalty. According to Hwang, Kim Jong Il personally directed even minor details of state affairs, such as the size of houses for party secretaries and the delivery of gifts to his subordinates.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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Leader of North Korea
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On 8 July 1994, Kim Il Sung died at the age of 82 from a heart attack.Template:Sfn Kim Jong Il had been his father's designated successor as early as 1974,Template:Sfn named commander-in-chief in 1991,Template:Sfn and became Supreme Leader upon his father's death.<ref name="wilsoncenter 1">Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref>
He officially took over his father's old post as General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea on 8 October 1997.Template:Sfn In 1998, he was re-elected as chairman of the National Defence Commission, and a constitutional amendment declared that post to be "the highest post of the state".Template:Sfn Also in 1998, the Supreme People's Assembly wrote the president's post out of the constitution and designated Kim Il Sung as the country's "Eternal President" in order to honor his memory forever.Template:Sfn
Officially, Kim was part of a triumvirate heading the executive branch of the North Korean government along with Premier Choe Yong Rim and parliament chairman Kim Yong Nam (no relation). Kim commanded the armed forces, Choe Yong Rim headed the government and handled domestic affairs and Kim Yong Nam handled foreign relations. However, in practice, Kim, like his father before him, exercised absolute control over the government and the country. Although not required to stand for popular election to his key offices, he was unanimously elected to the Supreme People's Assembly every five years, representing a military constituency, due to his concurrent capacities as supreme commander of the KPA and chairman of the NDC.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Economic policies
[edit]Kim had a "reputation for being almost comically incompetent in matters of economic management".Template:Sfn The economy of North Korea struggled throughout the 1990s, primarily due to mismanagement. In addition, North Korea experienced severe floods in the mid-1990s, exacerbated by poor land management.Template:Sfn<ref name="haggard209">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="terribleTruth">Template:Cite news</ref> This, compounded with the fact that only 18% of North Korea is arable land<ref>"North Korea Agriculture" Template:Webarchive, Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress. Retrieved 11 March 2007.</ref> and the country's inability to import the goods necessary to sustain industry,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> led to a severe famine and left North Korea economically devastated. Faced with a country in decay, Kim adopted a "Military-First" policy to strengthen the country and reinforce the regime.<ref>Homer T. Hodge.Template:Cite web , Parameters, U.S. Army War College Quarterly, 2003.</ref> On the national scale, the Japanese Foreign Ministry acknowledges that this has resulted in a positive growth rate for the country since 1996, with the implementation of "landmark socialist-type market economic practices" in 2002, keeping the North afloat despite a continued dependency on foreign aid for food.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In the wake of the devastation of the 1990s, the government began formally approving some activity of small-scale bartering and trade. As observed by Daniel Sneider, associate director for research at the Stanford University Asia–Pacific Research Center, this flirtation with capitalism was "fairly limited, butTemplate:Spndespecially compared to the pastTemplate:Spndthere are now remarkable markets that create the semblance of a free market system".<ref>"North Korea's Capitalist Experiment" Template:Webarchive, Council on Foreign Relations, 8 June 2006.</ref>
In 2002, Kim declared that "money should be capable of measuring the worth of all commodities."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> These gestures toward economic reform mirror similar actions taken by China's Deng Xiaoping in the late 1980s and early 90s. During a rare visit in 2006, Kim expressed admiration for China's rapid economic progress.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
An unsuccessful devaluation of the North Korean won in 2009, initiated or approved by Kim personally,Template:Sfn caused brief economic chaos and protests and uncovered the vulnerability of the country's societal fabric in the face of crisis.Template:Sfn
Foreign relations
[edit]
Kim was known as a skilled and manipulative diplomat.Template:Sfn In 1998, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung implemented the "Sunshine Policy" to improve North-South relations and to allow South Korean companies to start projects in the North. Kim announced plans to import and develop new technologies to develop North Korea's fledgling software industry. As a result of the new policy, the Kaesong Industrial Park was constructed in 2003 just north of the demilitarized zone.<ref>"Asan, KOLAND Permitted to Develop Kaesong Complex", The Korea Times, 23 April 2004. Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref>
Nonetheless, regular skirmishes broke out between the two Koreas, including the Gangneung incident in 1996, the Sokcho incident and Yeosu incident in 1998 and the Battles of Yeonpyeong in 1999 and 2002. The most serious conflict took place in 2010, with the sinking of the ROKS Cheonan and the shelling of Yeonpyeong island, which effectively killed the Sunshine Policy.
In a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in September 2002, Kim publicly admitted to the kidnapping of at least 13 Japanese citizens by North Korea since the 1970s. According to Russian scholar Andrei Lankov, the North Korean disclosure was met with outrage within both the Japanese government and the general public, as the allegations that were previously thought of as conspiracy theories had proved to be true.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In 1994, North Korea and the United States signed an Agreed Framework which was designed to freeze and eventually dismantle the North's nuclear weapons program in exchange for aid in producing two power-generating nuclear reactors and the assurance that it would not be invaded again. In 2000, after a meeting with Madeleine Albright, he agreed to a moratorium on missile construction.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
In 2002, Kim's government admitted to having produced nuclear weapons in violation of the 1994 agreement. Kim's regime argued the secret production was necessary for security purposesTemplate:Spndciting the presence of United States-owned nuclear weapons in South Korea and the new tensions with the United States under President George W. Bush after the axis of evil speech.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On 9 October 2006, North Korea's Korean Central News Agency announced that it had successfully conducted an underground nuclear test. In 2009, a second nuclear test was conducted.<ref name="msnbc1">Template:Cite web</ref>
Cult of personality
[edit]
Kim was the focus of an elaborate personality cult inherited from his father and founder of the DPRK, Kim Il Sung. Kim Jong Il was often the centre of attention throughout ordinary life in the DPRK. On his 60th birthday (based on his official date of birth), mass celebrations occurred throughout the country on the occasion of his Hwangap.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2010, the North Korean media reported that Kim's distinctive clothing had set worldwide fashion trends.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The prevailing point of view is that the people's adherence to Kim's cult of personality was solely out of respect for Kim Il Sung or out of fear of punishment for failure to pay homage.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Media and government sources from outside North Korea generally support this view,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="NZ_Herald_10405224">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Compiled by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices" Template:Webarchive United States Department of State. 25 February 2004. Retrieved 18 December 2007.</ref> while North Korean government sources aver that it was genuine hero worship.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The song "No Motherland Without You", sung by the KPA State Merited Choir, was created especially for Kim in 1992 and is frequently broadcast on the radio and from loudspeakers on the streets of Pyongyang.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Human rights record
[edit]Template:See also According to a 2004 Human Rights Watch report, the North Korean government under Kim was "among the world's most repressive governments", having up to 200,000 political prisoners according to U.S. and South Korean officials, with no freedom of the press or religion, political opposition or equal education: "Virtually every aspect of political, social, and economic life is controlled by the government."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Kim's government was accused of "crimes against humanity" for its alleged culpability in creating and prolonging the 1990s famine.Template:Sfn<ref name="haggard209"/><ref name="terribleTruth" /> Human Rights Watch characterized him as a dictator and accused him of human rights violations.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Amnesty International condemned him for leaving 'millions of North Koreans mired in poverty' and detaining hundreds of thousands of people in prison camps.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Kim Jong Il claimed that the barometer for distinguishing whether a person can be deemed a member of North Korean society and hence entitled to rights 'lies not on the grounds of his social class but on the grounds of his ideology'.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Health and rumours of waning power
[edit]2008 reports
[edit]In an August 2008 issue of the Japanese newsweekly Shūkan Gendai, Waseda University professor Toshimitsu Shigemura, an authority on the Korean Peninsula,<ref name="SundayTimes 20080907">Template:Cite news</ref> claimed that Kim died of diabetes in late 2003 and had been replaced in public appearances by one or more stand-ins previously employed to protect him from assassination attempts.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In a subsequent best-selling book, The True Character of Kim Jong Il, Shigemura cited apparently unnamed people close to Kim's family along with Japanese and South Korean intelligence sources, claiming they confirmed Kim's diabetes took a turn for the worse early in 2000 and from then until his supposed death three-and-a-half years later he was using a wheelchair. Shigemura moreover claimed a voiceprint analysis of Kim speaking in 2004 did not match a known earlier recording. It was also noted that Kim did not appear in public for the Olympic torch relay in Pyongyang on 28 April 2008. The question had reportedly "baffled foreign intelligence agencies for years".<ref name="SundayTimes 20080907"/>
On 9 September 2008, various sources reported that after he did not show up that day for a military parade celebrating North Korea's 60th anniversary, United States intelligence agencies believed Kim might be "gravely ill" after having suffered a stroke. He had last been seen in public a month earlier.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
A former CIA official said earlier reports of a health crisis were likely accurate. North Korean media remained silent on the issue. An Associated Press report said analysts believed Kim had been supporting moderates in the foreign ministry, while North Korea's powerful military was against so-called "Six-Party" negotiations with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States aimed towards ridding North Korea of nuclear weapons. Some United States officials noted that soon after rumours about Kim's health were publicized a month before, North Korea had taken a "tougher line in nuclear negotiations". In late August North Korea's official news agency reported the government would "consider soon a step to restore the nuclear facilities in Nyongbyon to their original state as strongly requested by its relevant institutions". Analysts said this meant "the military may have taken the upper hand and that Kim might no longer be wielding absolute authority".
By 10 September, there were conflicting reports. Unidentified South Korean government officials said Kim had undergone surgery after suffering a minor stroke and had apparently "intended to attend 9 September event in the afternoon but decided not to because of the aftermath of the surgery". Kim Yong Nam said, "While we wanted to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the country with general secretary Kim Jong Il, we celebrated on our own". Song Il Ho, North Korea's ambassador said, "We see such reports as not only worthless, but rather as a conspiracy plot". Seoul's Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported that "the South Korean embassy in Beijing had received an intelligence report that Kim collapsed on 22 August".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The New York Times reported on 9 September that Kim was "very ill and most likely suffered a stroke a few weeks ago, but United States intelligence authorities do not think his death is imminent".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The BBC noted that the North Korean government denied these reports, stating that Kim's health problems were "not serious enough to threaten his life",<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> although they did confirm that he had suffered a stroke on 15 August.<ref name="time-stroke">Template:Cite news</ref>
Japan's Kyodo News agency reported on 14 September, that "Kim collapsed on 14 August due to stroke or a cerebral hemorrhage, and that Beijing dispatched five military doctors at the request of Pyongyang. Kim will require a long period of rest and rehabilitation before he fully recovers and has complete command of his limbs again, as with typical stroke victims". Japan's Mainichi Shimbun claimed Kim had occasionally lost consciousness since April.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Japan's Tokyo Shimbun on 15 September, added that Kim was staying at the Bongwha State Guest House. He was apparently conscious "but he needs some time to recuperate from the recent stroke, with some parts of his hands and feet paralyzed". It cited Chinese sources which claimed that one cause for the stroke could have been stress brought about by the United States delay to remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.<ref>Template:Cite web. Yahoo! News. 15 September 2008.</ref>
On 19 October, North Korea reportedly ordered its diplomats to stay near their embassies to await "an important message", according to Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun, setting off renewed speculation about the health of the ailing leader.<ref name="kore_NKDi">Template:Cite web</ref>
By 29 October 2008, reports stated Kim suffered a serious setback and had been taken back to the hospital.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The New York Times reported that Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, on 28 October 2008, stated in a parliamentary session that Kim had been hospitalized: "His condition is not so good. However, I don't think he is totally incapable of making decisions". Aso further said a French neurosurgeon was aboard a plane for Beijing, en route to North Korea. Further, Kim Sung-ho, director of South Korea's National Intelligence Service, told lawmakers in a closed parliamentary session in Seoul that "Kim appeared to be recovering quickly enough to start performing his daily duties".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The Dong-A Ilbo newspaper reported "a serious problem" with Kim's health. Japan's Fuji Television network reported that Kim's eldest son, Kim Jong-nam, traveled to Paris to hire a neurosurgeon for his father, and showed footage where the surgeon boarded flight CA121 bound for Pyongyang from Beijing on 24 October. The French weekly Le Point identified him as Francois-Xavier Roux, neurosurgery director of Paris' Sainte-Anne Hospital, but Roux himself stated he was in Beijing for several days and not North Korea.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On 19 December 2011, Roux confirmed that Kim suffered a debilitating stroke in 2008 and was treated by himself and other French doctors at Pyongyang's Red Cross Hospital. Roux said Kim suffered few lasting effects.<ref>French doctor confirms Kim had stroke in 2008 Template:Webarchive (Associated Press via PhilStar), 19 December 2011.</ref>
On 5 November 2008, the North's Korean Central News Agency published 2 photos showing Kim posing with dozens of Korean People's Army (KPA) soldiers on a visit to military Unit 2200 and sub-unit of Unit 534. Shown with his usual bouffant hairstyle, with his trademark sunglasses and a white winter parka, Kim stood in front of trees with autumn foliage and a red-and-white banner.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>JPG image, archived fromTemplate:Cite web orTemplate:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Times questioned the authenticity of at least one of these photos.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In November 2008, Japan's TBS TV network reported that Kim had suffered a second stroke in October, which "affected the movement of his left arm and leg and also his ability to speak".<ref name="reuters.com">Template:Cite news</ref> However, South Korea's intelligence agency rejected this report.<ref name="reuters.com"/>
In response to the rumors regarding Kim's health and supposed loss of power, in April 2009, North Korea released a video showing Kim visiting factories and other places around the country between November and December 2008.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2010, leaked diplomatic cables purportedly attested that Kim suffered from epilepsy.<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref>
According to The Daily Telegraph, Kim was a chain-smoker.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Successor
[edit]Kim's three sons and his brother-in-law, along with O Kuk Ryol, an army general, had been noted as possible successors, but the North Korean government had for a time been wholly silent on this matter.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Kim Yong Hyun, a political expert at the Institute for North Korean Studies at Seoul's Dongguk University, said in 2007: "Even the North Korean establishment would not advocate a continuation of the family dynasty at this point".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Kim's eldest son Kim Jong-nam was earlier believed to be the designated heir but he appeared to have fallen out of favor after being arrested at Narita International Airport near Tokyo in 2001 where he was caught attempting to enter Japan on a fake passport to visit Tokyo Disneyland.<ref>Template:Cite news See also family tree: Template:Cite web</ref>
On 2 June 2009, it was reported that Kim's youngest son, Kim Jong Un, was to be North Korea's next leader.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Like his father and grandfather, he has also been given an official sobriquet, The Brilliant Comrade.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Prior to his death, it had been reported that Kim was expected to officially designate the son as his successor in 2012.Template:Sfn
Re-election as leader
[edit]On 9 April 2009, Kim was re-elected as chairman of the National Defence Commission<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and made an appearance at the Supreme People's Assembly. This was the first time Kim was seen in public since August 2008. He was unanimously re-elected and given a standing ovation.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
On 28 September 2010, Kim was re-elected as General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea.<ref name="bbc._Nort">Template:Cite news</ref>
2010 and 2011 foreign visits
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Kim reportedly visited the People's Republic of China in May 2010. He entered the country via his personal train on 3 May and stayed in a hotel in Dalian.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In May 2010, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell told South Korean officials that Kim had only three years to live, according to medical information that had been compiled.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Kim travelled to China again in August 2010, this time with his son, fueling speculation at the time that he was ready to hand over power to his son, Kim Jong Un.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
He returned to China again in May 2011, marking the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance between China and the DPRK.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In late August 2011, he traveled by train to the Russian Far East to meet with President Dmitry Medvedev for unspecified talks.<ref>Schwirtz, M. "Kim Il-Jong Visits Russia to Meet with President Medvedev", The New York Times. 21 August 2011.</ref>
Late 2011
[edit]There were speculations that the visits of Kim abroad in 2010 and 2011 were a sign of his improving health and a possible slowdown in succession might follow. After the visit to Russia, Kim appeared in a military parade in Pyongyang on 9 September, accompanied by Kim Jong Un.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Death
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It was reported that Kim had died of a suspected heart attack on 17 December 2011 at 8:30Template:Nbspam while travelling by train to an area outside Pyongyang.<ref name="bbcdeath">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="ABC News - 19Dec2011 - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il dead">Template:Cite news</ref> He was succeeded by his youngest son Kim Jong Un, who was hailed by the Korean Central News Agency as the "Great Successor".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), during his death a fierce snowstorm "paused" and "the sky glowed red above the sacred Mount Paektu" and the ice on a famous lake also cracked so loud that it seemed to "shake the Heavens and the Earth".<ref name="bbcskyglow">Template:Cite news</ref>
Kim's funeral took place on 28 December in Pyongyang, with a mourning period lasting until the following day. South Korea's military was immediately put on alert after the announcement and its National Security Council convened for an emergency meeting, out of concern that political jockeying in North Korea could destabilise the region. Asian stock markets fell soon after the announcement, due to similar concerns.<ref name="bbcdeath"/>
On 12 January 2012, North Korea called Kim the "eternal leader" and announced that his body would be preserved and displayed at Pyongyang's Kumsusan Memorial Palace. Officials also announced plans to install statues, portraits, and immortality towers across the country.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His birthday of 16 February was declared "the greatest auspicious holiday of the nation" and was named the Day of the Shining Star.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In February 2012, on what would have been his 71st birthday, Kim was posthumously made Dae Wonsu (usually translated as Generalissimo, literally Grand Marshal), the nation's top military rank. He had been named Wonsu (Marshal) in 1992 when North Korean founder Kim Il Sung was promoted to Dae Wonsu.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Also in February 2012, the North Korean government created the Order of Kim Jong Il in his honor and awarded it to 132 individuals for services in building a "thriving socialist nation" and for increasing defense capabilities. Kim Jong Un was elected as the General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea on 11 April 2012, Juche was originally presented as the Korean interpretation of Marxism–Leninism which transformed every aspect of North Korean society by the Workers' Party of Korea declared itself as "the party of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il", with Kimilsungism became Kimilsungism–Kimjongilism as "the only guiding idea of the party" as well as the state ideology of North Korea.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref>
Personal life
[edit]Family
[edit]
There is no official information available about Kim Jong Il's marital history, but he is believed to have been officially married twice and to have had three mistresses.<ref name="The Women in Kim's Life">Template:Cite web</ref> He had three known sons: Kim Jong-nam, Kim Jong Chul and Kim Jong Un. His two known daughters are Kim Sol Song and Kim Yo Jong.<ref name=KJD8812>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="theseoultimes.com">Template:Cite web</ref>
Kim's first wife, Hong Il Chon, was the daughter of a martyr who died during the Korean War. She was handpicked by his father and married to him in 1966. They had a daughter called Kim Hye Kyung,Template:Sfn who was born in 1968. Soon afterwards, they divorced in 1969.
Kim's first mistress, Song Hye Rim, was a star of North Korean films. She was already married to another man and with a child when they met.<ref name="NK defector">Template:Cite web</ref> Kim is reported to have forced her husband to divorce her. This relationship, which started in 1970, was not officially recognized. They had one son, Kim Jong-nam (1971–2017), who was Kim Jong Il's eldest son. Kim kept both the relationship and the child a secret (even from his father) until he ascended to power in 1994.<ref name="NK defector"/><ref name="Kim's Secret Family">Template:Cite web</ref> However, after years of estrangement, Song is believed to have died in Moscow in the Central Clinical Hospital in 2002.<ref name="Martin">Template:Cite book</ref>
Kim's official wife, Kim Young Sook, was the daughter of a high-ranking military official. His father Kim Il Sung handpicked her to marry his son.<ref name="The Women in Kim's Life"/> The two were estranged for some years before his death. Kim had a daughter from this marriage, Kim Sol Song (born 1974).<ref name="theseoultimes.com"/>
His second mistress, Ko Yong Hui, was a Japanese-born ethnic Korean and a dancer. She had taken over the role of First Lady until her deathTemplate:Spndreportedly of cancerTemplate:Spndin 2004. They had two sons, Kim Jong Chul (in 1981) and Kim Jong Un, also "Jong Woon" or "Jong Woong" (in 1983).<ref name="Kim's Secret Family"/><ref name="Kim Jong-un's Birthday">Template:Cite web</ref> They also had a daughter, Kim Yo Jong, who was about 23 years old in 2012.<ref name=KJD8812/><ref name="Kim Yo Jong">Template:Cite web</ref>
After Ko's death, Kim lived with Kim Ok, his third mistress, who had served as his personal secretary since the 1980s. She "virtually act[ed] as North Korea's first lady" and frequently accompanied Kim on his visits to military bases and in meetings with visiting foreign dignitaries. She traveled with Kim on a secretive trip to China in January 2006, where she was received by Chinese officials as Kim's wife.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
According to Michael Breen, author of the book Kim Jong Il: North Korea's Dear Leader, the women intimately linked to Kim never acquired any power or influence of consequence. As he explains, their roles were limited to that of romance and domesticity.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
He had a younger sister, Kim Kyong Hui. She was married to Jang Sung Taek, who was executed in December 2013 in Pyongyang, after being charged with treason and corruption.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Personality
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Like his father, Kim had a fear of flying<ref name="fp_phobia">Template:Cite web</ref> and always travelled by private armored train for state visits to Russia and China.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The BBC reported that Konstantin Pulikovsky, a Russian emissary who travelled with Kim across Russia by train, told reporters that Kim had live lobsters air-lifted to the train every day and ate them with silver chopsticks.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Kim was said to be a huge film fan, owning a collection of more than 20,000 video tapes and DVDs.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="cinephile" /> His reported favourite movie franchises included Friday the 13th, Godzilla, Hong Kong action cinema, Indiana Jones, James Bond, Otoko wa Tsurai yo, and Rambo,<ref name="cinephile">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Shapiro">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name=":2">Template:Cite book</ref> with Sean Connery and Elizabeth Taylor his favourite male and female actors.<ref name="cinephile"/><ref name="Shapiro"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Kim was also said to have been a fan of Ealing comedies, inspired by their emphasis on team spirit and a mobilised proletariat.<ref name="cinephile" /> Kim oversaw the production of The Flower Girl, a film which also became immensely popular in China.<ref name=":122">Template:Cite book</ref> He authored On the Art of the Cinema. In 1978, on Kim's orders South Korean film director Shin Sang-ok and his actress wife Choi Eun-hee were kidnapped in order to build a North Korean film industry.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He supervised all of their films from thereupon until Shin and Choi escaped North Korean control in 1986. The last of these movies was the 1985 Godzilla-inspired epic Pulgasari, which Kim considered a masterpiece.<ref name=":2" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2006, he was involved in the production of the Juche-based movie The Schoolgirl's Diary, which depicted the life of a young girl whose parents are scientists, with a KCNA news report stating that Kim "improved its script and guided its production".<ref>"Film 'Diary of a Girl Student', Close Companion of Life" Template:Webarchive, Korea News Service, 10 August 2006.</ref>
Although Kim enjoyed many foreign forms of entertainment, according to former bodyguard Lee Young Kuk, he refused to consume any food or drink not produced in North Korea, with the exception of wine from France.<ref name="supremo">Template:Cite news</ref> His former chef Kenji Fujimoto, however, has stated that Kim sometimes sent him around the world to purchase a variety of foreign delicacies.<ref>Template:Cite web. The Chosun Ilbo. 27 June 2004.</ref>
Kim reportedly enjoyed basketball. Former United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright ended her summit with Kim by presenting him with a basketball signed by NBA legend Michael Jordan.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His official biography also claims that Kim composed six operas and enjoyed staging elaborate musicals.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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United States Special Envoy for the Korean Peace Talks, Charles Kartman, who was involved in the 2000 Madeleine Albright summit with Kim, characterised Kim as a reasonable man in negotiations, to the point, but with a sense of humor and personally attentive to the people he was hosting.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> However, psychological evaluations conclude that Kim's antisocial features, such as his fearlessness in the face of sanctions and punishment, served to make negotiations extraordinarily difficult.Template:Sfn
The field of psychology has long been fascinated with the personality assessment of dictators, a notion that resulted in an extensive personality evaluation of Kim. The report, compiled by Frederick L. Coolidge and Daniel L. Segal (with the assistance of a South Korean psychiatrist considered an expert on Kim's behavior), concluded that the "big six" group of personality disorders shared by dictators Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Saddam Hussein (sadistic, paranoid, antisocial, narcissistic, schizoid and schizotypal) were also shared by KimTemplate:Spndcoinciding primarily with the profile of Saddam Hussein.Template:Sfn
The evaluation found that Kim appeared to pride himself on North Korea's independence, despite the extreme hardships it appears to place on the North Korean peopleTemplate:Spndan attribute appearing to emanate from his antisocial personality pattern.Template:Sfn
Defectors claimed that Kim had 17 different palaces and residences all over North Korea, including a private resort near Baekdu Mountain, a seaside lodge in the city of Wonsan, and Ryongsong Residence, a palace complex northeast of Pyongyang surrounded with multiple fence lines, bunkers and anti-aircraft batteries.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Finances
[edit]According to a 2010 report in the Sunday Telegraph, Kim had 4Template:Nbspbillion USD on deposit in European banks in case he ever needed to flee North Korea. The Sunday Telegraph reported that most of the money was in banks in Luxembourg.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Official titles
[edit]Template:MainKim received numerous titles during his rule. In April 2009, North Korea's constitution was amended to refer to him and his successors as the "supreme leader of the DPRK".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- Party Center of the WPK and Member, Central Committee of the WPK (1970s)<ref name="sahwe">Template:Cite book</ref>
- Dear Leader (Chinaehaneun Jidoja) (late 1970s–1994)<ref name="sahwe"/>
- Member, Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK
- Secretary, Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (1974–1997)
- Presidium member, WPK Central Committee (1980–2011)
- Supreme Commander, Korean People's Army (25 December 1991Template:Spnd17 December 2011)<ref name=":0" />
- Marshal of the DPRK (1993–2011)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- Chairman, National Defence Commission (1993–2011)<ref name="nkle_20th" />
- Great Leader (Widehan Ryongdoja) (8 July 1994Template:Spnd17 December 2011)<ref name="sahwe"/>
- General Secretary, Workers' Party of Korea (8 October 1997Template:Spnd17 December 2011)<ref name="bbc._Nort" />
- Chairman, Central Military Commission (DPRK) (8 October 1997Template:Spnd17 December 2011)
- Eternal Leader (posthumous) (12 January 2012Template:Spndpresent)<ref name=":1" />
- Generalissimo of the DPRK (posthumous) (12 January 2012Template:Spndpresent)<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref>
- Eternal General Secretary, Workers' Party of Korea (posthumous) (11 April 2012Template:Spndpresent)<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref>
- Eternal Chairman of the National Defence Commission (posthumous) (13 April 2012Template:Spndpresent)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- Eternal leader of the Workers' Party of Korea (posthumous) (7 May 2016Template:Spndpresent)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Eternal leader of Juche Korea (posthumous) (29 June 2016Template:Spndpresent)<ref>Constitution of North Korea (2012)Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore Wikisource</ref>
Published works
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According to North Korean sources, Kim published some 890 works during a period of his career from June 1964 to June 1994.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> According to KCNA, the number of works from 1964 to 2001 was 550.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2000, it was reported that the Workers' Party of Korea Publishing House has published at least 120 works by Kim.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2009, KCNA put the numbers as follows: Template:Blockquote
The Selected Works of Kim Jong Il (Enlarged Edition), whose publishing has continued posthumously, runs into volume 24 in Korean<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and to volume 15 in English.<ref name="KPEA2011">Template:Cite book</ref> Volumes three to eight were never published in English.<ref name="nort_Sele">Template:Cite web</ref>
The Complete Collection of Kim Jong Il's Works is currently in volume 13.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> There is a "Kim Jong Il's Works Exhibition House" dedicated to his works in North Korea, holding 1,100 of his works and manuscripts.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In his teens and university years, Kim had written poems.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He also wrote song lyrics.<ref name="lyr">Template:Cite web</ref> His first major literary work was On the Art of the Cinema in 1973.Template:Sfn
See also
[edit]- North Korean-Chinese border
- Awards and decorations received by Kim Jong Il
- Politics of North Korea
- Residences of North Korean leaders
Notes
[edit]References
[edit]Citations
[edit]Sources
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Further reading
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External links
[edit]- Template:NYTtopic
- Template:Cite web – Kim Jong Il's childhood.
- The many family secrets of Kim Jong Il
- "Hidden Daughter" Visits Kim Jong-il Every Year (also includes photos of Kim during his youth)
- BBC, North Korea's secretive 'first family'
- Obituary: Kim Jong-il, BBC News, 19 December 2011.
- Kim Jong Il's works at Publications of the DPRK
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