Editing Kim Jong Il (section)

=== Initial career ===
Kim Jong Il officially joined the Workers' Party of Korea in July 1961.<ref name="ournation-school.com">{{Cite web|title=략력|url=https://ournation-school.com/great/81/2#greates_wrapper|website=Our Nation School}}</ref> He rose up the ranks during the 1960s,<ref>Adrian Buzo, ''The Making of Modern Korea''. London: Routledge Press, 2002, {{ISBN|978-0415237499}}, 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, {{ISBN|978-1317567400}}.</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, {{ISBN|978-1134017126}}, 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, {{ISBN|978-1317567400}}.</ref><ref name="Lim Jae-Cheon 2008">Lim Jae-Cheon, Kim Jong-il's Leadership of North Korea (New York: Routledge, 2008, {{ISBN|978-1134017126}}, 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''.{{efn|''An Act of Sincerity'', described variously as either a film or a stage play, was produced by Kim To-man after the death of Choe Chae-ryon, the wife of Kapsan Faction leader [[Pak Kum-chol]]. It portrayed Choe in a positive light and emphasized her devotion to her husband. Kim Il Sung disapproved of it and implied that it exhibited misplaced loyalty.<ref name="rajongyil">{{cite book|last=Ra|first=Jong-yil|author-mask=Ra Jong-yil|translator=Jinna Park|title=Inside North Korea's Theocracy: The Rise and Sudden Fall of Jang Song-thaek|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yEyWDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA35|year=2019|publisher=State University of New York Press|location=Albany|isbn=978-1438473734|access-date=4 August 2022|archive-date=4 August 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220804174029/https://books.google.com/books?id=yEyWDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA35|url-status=live}}</ref>}} 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>{{Cite journal|last=Levi|first=Nicolas|date=30 June 2015|title=Kim Jong Il: a film director who ran a country|url=https://www.jomswsge.com/,81826,0,2.html|journal=Journal of Modern Science|language=en |volume=25|issue=2|pages=155–166|issn=1734-2031}}</ref> In 1969, he produced a film adaptation of the North Korean opera [[Sea of Blood|''Sea of Blood'']].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Robey |first=Tim |date=2023-04-02 |title=From Sea of Blood to Rambo: Kim Jong-il's guide to the movies |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/kim-jong-il-guide-cinema-bond-rambo-friday-13th/ |access-date=2025-02-09 |work=The Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}}</ref>

Kim Jong Il entered the [[Propaganda and Agitation Department]] in February 1966.<ref name="Armstrong2013">{{cite book|last=Armstrong|first=Charles K.|title=Tyranny of the Weak: North Korea and the World, 1950–1992|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=23PRnGPxSd0C&pg=PT321|year=2013|publisher=Cornell University Press|location=Ithaca|isbn=978-0-8014-6893-3|page=321}}</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 in North Korea|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>{{cite book|last=Fischer|first=Paul|title=A Kim Jong-Il Production: Kidnap, Torture, Murder... Making Movies North Korean-Style|year=2016|publisher=Penguin Books|location=London|isbn=978-0-241-97000-3}}</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 of the Workers' Party of Korea|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">{{citation |title=Kim Il-Sung: The North Korean Leader |last=Suh |first=Dae-Sook |year=1988 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0231065733 |url=https://archive.org/details/00book729884 |pages=276–280 }}</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|Hwang Jang Yop]] wrote in his memoirs,<ref name="successor">"Kim Jong Il Secures Position as Successor". ''[[Daily NK]]''. 6 February 2011. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130813143449/http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk02400&num=7323 Archived] from original on 13 August 2013. Retrieved 23 January 2025.</ref>
{{blockquote|[By early 1973] the power of the Central Committee of the Party was slowly being handed over to Kim Jong Il. Many people were becoming aware that Kim Jong Il was the successor. In North Korea, where pre-modern ideas of ancestry were overwhelming, many people had figured out that Kim Jong Il would be the successor. ... Some people were under the impression that first generation revolutionaries who had pursued the anti-Japan guerilla struggle alongside Kim Il Sung had picked Kim Jong Il as the successor, but that was not true. There was no-one among them who could suggest a successor. Even if there were someone, it would have been impossible had Kim Il Sung showed even a small sign of objection. ... [T]he succession became possible because the totalitarian dictatorship had become firm and prolonged. In other words, since Kim Il Sung lacked a modern sense of politics and was steeped in pre-modern thinking, he came up with the absurd idea of handing the country over to his son. In addition, Kim Jong Il himself was ambitious to succeed his father and made every effort to do so.}}

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 [[Socialist Women's Union of Korea|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>{{cite web|url=http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk03100&num=2040|title=Photos of Kim Jong Il's Brother, Kim Pyong Il and Recent Visits|last=Kim|first=Song-A|date=9 May 2007|access-date=10 March 2024|periodical=Daily NK|archive-date=27 September 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927014305/http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk03100&num=2040|url-status=live}}</ref> Kim Pyong Il only returned to North Korea in 2019.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nknews.org/2019/11/kim-pyong-il-long-time-north-korean-ambassador-in-europe-returns-home/|title=Kim Pyong Il, long-time North Korean ambassador in Europe, returns home|date=8 November 2019|website=[[NK News]]|access-date=10 March 2024|archive-date=1 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200501192209/https://www.nknews.org/2019/11/kim-pyong-il-long-time-north-korean-ambassador-in-europe-returns-home/|url-status=live}}</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" />