Editing History of North Korea (section)

== Later years of Kim Il Sung (1970s–1994) ==
[[File:Pjongjang Zentrum.jpg|thumb|Pyongyang in 1989]]
In the 1970s, expansion of North Korea's economy, with the accompanying rise in living standards, came to an end.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ostermann|first=Christian F.|title=The Rise and Fall of Détente on the Korean Peninsula, 1970–1974|date=2011|publisher=Woodrow Wilson Center|location=Washington, DC|isbn=9781933549712|pages=18, 19, 26–33|url=http://wilsoncenter.org/publication/the-rise-and-fall-d%C3%A9tente-the-korean-peninsula-1970-1974}}</ref> Compounding this was a decision to borrow foreign capital and invest heavily in military industries. North Korea's desire to lessen its dependence on aid from China and the Soviet Union prompted the expansion of its military power, which had begun in the second half of the 1960s. The government believed such expenditures could be covered by foreign borrowing and increased sales of its mineral wealth in the international market. North Korea invested heavily in its mining industries and purchased a large quantity of mineral extraction infrastructure from abroad. It also purchased entire petrochemical, textile, concrete, steel, pulp and paper manufacturing plants from the developed capitalist world.<ref name="auto3" /> This included a Japanese-Danish venture that provided North Korea with the largest cement factory in the world.<ref>{{Cite book| last1= Oberdorfer| first1=Don| last2=Carlin| first2=Robert | title=The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History | publisher = Basic Books| year = 2014 | page = 78 | isbn = 9780465031238}}</ref> However, following the world [[1973 oil crisis]], international prices for many of North Korea's native minerals fell, leaving the country with large debts and an inability to pay them off and still provide a high level of social welfare to its people. North Korea began to default in 1974 and halted almost all repayments in 1985. As a result, it was unable to pay for foreign technology.<ref>{{cite book | title = Korea| last = Bluth | first = Christoph | year = 2008| publisher = Polity Press| location = Cambridge| isbn = 978-07456-3357-2 |page=35}}</ref>

By the mid to late 1970s some parts of the capitalist world, including South Korea, were creating new industries based around computers, electronics, and other advanced technology in contrast to North Korea's Stalinist economy of mining and steel production.<ref name="Cumings2004">Bruce Cumings, ''North Korea: Another Country'', New Press, 2004, {{ISBN|1-56584-940-X}}</ref> Migration to urban areas stalled.<ref>{{cite book| title = The Making of Modern Korea | last = Buzo | first = Adrian | year = 2002| publisher = Routledge|  location = London | isbn = 978-0-415-23749-9 |pages=151–152}}</ref>

In October 1980, Kim Jong Il was introduced to the public at the [[6th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea|Sixth Party Congress]] as the successor to Kim Il Sung.<ref>{{cite book|last=Buzo|first=Adrian|title=The Making of Modern Korea|publisher=Routledge|year=2002|isbn=978-0-415-23749-9|location=London|page=127}}</ref> In 1972, Kim Jong Il had established himself as a leading theoretician with the publication of ''[[On the Juche Idea]]''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Buzo|first=Adrian|title=The Making of Modern Korea|publisher=Routledge|year=2002|isbn=978-0-415-23749-9|location=London|page=146}}</ref> and in 1974, he had been officially confirmed as his father's successor.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lone|first1=Stewart|title=Korea since 1850|last2=McCormack|first2=Gavan|publisher=Longman Cheshire|year=1993|location=Melbourne|page=193|author-link2=Gavan McCormack}}</ref>

In 1983, North Korea carried out the [[Rangoon bombing]], a failed assassination attempt against South Korean President [[Chun Doo-hwan]] while he was visiting Burma.<ref>{{cite book| title = The Making of Modern Korea | last = Buzo | first = Adrian | year = 2002| publisher = Routledge|  location = London | isbn = 0-415-23749-1 |pages=147–48}}</ref> This attack on neutral soil led many Third World countries to reconsider their diplomatic ties with North Korea.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nknews.org/2021/04/how-north-koreas-friendship-with-third-world-countries-changed|title=How North Korea's friendship with 'third world' countries changed|publisher=[[NK News]]|date=21 April 2021}}</ref>

In 1984, Kim visited Moscow during a grand tour of the USSR where he met Soviet leader [[Konstantin Chernenko]]. Kim also made public visits to East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. Soviet involvement in the North Korean economy increased, until 1988 when bilateral trade peaked at US$2.8 billion ({{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=2008000000|start_year=1988|r=-6|fmt=eq}}).<ref>{{cite book| title = The Making of Modern Korea | last = Buzo | first = Adrian | year = 2002| publisher = Routledge|  location = London | isbn = 978-0-415-23749-9 |page=150}}</ref> In 1986, Kim met the incoming Soviet leader [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] in Moscow and received a pledge of support.<ref>{{Cite book| last1= Oberdorfer| first1=Don| last2=Carlin| first2=Robert | title=The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History | publisher = Basic Books| year = 2014 | pages = 124–125 | isbn = 9780465031238}}</ref>

The bombing of [[Korean Air Flight 858]] in 1987, in the lead up to the [[Seoul Olympics]], led to the US government placing North Korea on its list of terrorist countries.<ref>{{cite book| title = The Making of Modern Korea | last = Buzo | first = Adrian | year = 2002| publisher = Routledge|  location = London | isbn = 0-415-23749-1 |page=165}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = Korea| last = Bluth | first = Christoph | year = 2008| publisher = Polity Press| location = Cambridge| isbn = 978-07456-3357-2 |pages=46–47}}</ref>
[[File:Juche-Tower-2014.jpg | thumb|Up-close view of the ''Juche'' Tower and the accompanying monument to the Workers' Party of Korea]]

Despite the emerging economic problems, the regime invested heavily in prestigious projects, such as the [[Juche Tower|''Juche'' Tower]], the [[Nampo Dam]], and the [[Ryugyong Hotel]]. In 1989, as a response to the 1988 Seoul Olympics, it held the [[13th World Festival of Youth and Students]] in Pyongyang.<ref>{{cite book|last=Robinson|first=Michael E|url=https://archive.org/details/koreastwentieth00robi/page/152|title=Korea's Twentieth-Century Odyssey|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0-8248-3174-5|location=Honolulu|pages=[https://archive.org/details/koreastwentieth00robi/page/152 152, 157–158]|url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Bluth|first=Christoph|title=Korea|publisher=Polity Press|year=2008|isbn=978-07456-3357-2|location=Cambridge|page=37}}</ref> In fact, the grandiosity associated with the regime and its personality cult, as expressed in monuments, museums, and events, has been identified as a factor in the economic decline.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lone|first1=Stewart|title=Korea since 1850|last2=McCormack|first2=Gavan|publisher=Longman Cheshire|year=1993|location=Melbourne|pages=189–191|author-link2=Gavan McCormack}}</ref>

However, Gorbachev's reforms and diplomatic initiatives, the Chinese economic reforms starting in 1979, and the collapse of the [[Eastern Bloc]] from 1989 to 1991 increased North Korea's isolation.<ref>{{cite book| title = The Making of Modern Korea | last = Buzo | first = Adrian | year = 2002| publisher = Routledge|  location = London | isbn = 978-0-415-23749-9 |pages=149–151}}</ref> The leadership in Pyongyang responded by proclaiming that the collapse of the Eastern Bloc communist governments demonstrated the correctness of the policy of ''Juche''.<ref>{{Cite book| last1= Oberdorfer| first1=Don| last2=Carlin| first2=Robert | title=The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History | publisher = Basic Books| year = 2014 | page = 181 | isbn = 9780465031238}}</ref>

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 deprived North Korea of its main source of economic aid, leaving China as the isolated regime's only major ally. Without Soviet aid, North Korea's economy went into a free-fall. By this time, in the early 1990s, Kim Jong Il was already conducting most of the day-to-day activities of running of the state, being appointed Supreme Commander of the Korean Peoples' Army in December 1991 and Chairman of the National Defence Commission in 1993. Meanwhile, international tensions were rising over North Korea's quest for nuclear weapons. Former US president [[Jimmy Carter]] made a visit to Pyongyang in June 1994 in which he met with Kim, and returned proclaiming that he had resolved the crisis.<ref>{{Cite book| last1= Oberdorfer| first1=Don| last2=Carlin| first2=Robert | title=The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History | publisher = Basic Books| year = 2014 | pages = 248–264 | isbn = 9780465031238}}</ref>