Kim Il-Sung facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Kim Il-sung
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Official portrait (posthumous, issued 1994)
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| Eternal President of the Republic (Appellation) | |
| Assumed office 8 July 1994 |
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| Supreme Leader of North Korea | |
| In office 9 September 1948 – 8 July 1994 |
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| Succeeded by | Kim Jong-il |
| President of North Korea | |
| In office 28 December 1972 – 8 July 1994 |
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| Preceded by | Position created Choi Yong-kun, Head of State as President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished (Proclaimed Eternal President of the Republic after his death) |
| Prime Minister of North Korea | |
| In office 9 September 1948 – 28 December 1972 |
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| Preceded by | Position created |
| Succeeded by | Kim Il (Premier) |
| General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea | |
| In office 11 October 1966 – 8 July 1994 |
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| Preceded by | Himself as Chairman |
| Succeeded by | Kim Jong-il |
| Chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers Party of Korea | |
| In office 30 June 1949 – 11 October 1966 |
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| Preceded by | Kim Tu-bong |
| Succeeded by | Himself as General Secretary |
| Vice-Chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of North Korea | |
| In office 28 August 1946 – 30 June 1949 |
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| Chairman | Kim Tu-bong |
| Preceded by | Position created |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Chairman of the North Korea Bureau of the Communist Party of Korea | |
| In office 17 December 1945 – 28 August 1946 |
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| General Secretary | Pak Hon-yong |
| Preceded by | Kim Yong-bom |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Kim Sŏng-ju
15 April 1912 Mangyŏngdae, Heian-nandō, Japanese Korea |
| Died | 8 July 1994 (aged 82) Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea |
| Resting place | Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea |
| Nationality | North Korean |
| Political party | Workers’ Party of Korea |
| Spouses | Kim Jong-suk (d. 1949) Kim Song-ae |
| Children | Kim Jong-il Kim Man-il Kim Kyong-hui Kim Kyong-jin Kim Pyong-il Kim Yong-il |
| Residences | Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea |
| Occupation | Eternal President of the Republic |
| Profession | President of North Korea |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Soviet Union Democratic People's Republic of Korea |
| Branch/service | Soviet Armed Forces Korean People's Army |
| Years of service | 1941–1945 1948–1994 |
| Rank | Dae wonsu (Grand Marshal) |
| Commands | All (supreme commander) |
| Battles/wars | World War II Korean War |
Kim Il-Sung (April 15, 1912 - July 8, 1994) was the first leader of North Korea from 1948 until his death in 1994. He had full control of the country. He died of a heart attack on July 8, 1994. North Koreans still call him 'Eternal Leader'. Kim Il-Sung's name means "become the sun".
Kim Il-Sung created the Juche political idea. He ran North Korea differently than the Soviet Union and China. There are more than 300 statues of Kim Il-sung in North Korea.
When he died, his son Kim Jŏng-Il (1941-2011) became the leader of North Korea. He had that job until he died on December 17, 2011. His grandson, Kim Jong-un (born 1983) is the leader of North Korea.
Contents
Founding the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
In 1945 after the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, the United States bombed Japan at Hiroshima and Nagasaki severely weakening the Japanese Empire. The Soviet Red Army entered Japanese-Korea and captured Pyongyang with little difficulty.
They made Kim Il-Sung the leader of the North Korean branch of the Korean Communist Party and supplied him with modern Soviet tanks, trucks, arms and artillery for the Korean People's Army (KPA).
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea was declared on September 8, 1948 despite UN resistance. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin installed Kim as leader of the new state. The southern portion of the Korean Peninsula declared itself the Republic of Korea (South Korea) in retaliation. Statues of Kim appeared in North Korea as early as 1949.
Leader of North Korea
During the early years, North Korea was ahead of its southern neighbour economically; most likely due to Soviet and Chinese aid. Kim installed a centrally-planned Soviet-style command economy. The means of production was controlled by the government and food prices were fixed instead of being allowed to rise and fall like in a market system. Kim Il-Sung formally became leader of North Korea with the establishment of the constitution of the DPRK in 1972 which identified him as President of the republic.
Korean War
The Soviet Union recognised Kim's regime as having sovereignty over the whole Korea, including the south. It is generally accepted that Kim invaded the south by his own decision and that the Soviets did not influence him. The south was caught completely by surprise when Kim's army invade in the early morning of June 25, 1950.
The KPA captured Seoul and most of the south apart from Pusan in the south-east. UN forces backed mostly by the United States landed in Korea and began to push the KPA back north. Firstly, the UN forces managed to push the KPA back behind the 38th parallel (the imaginary line that divided the Koreas during the war).
The newly formed People's Republic of China was at first reluctant to the idea that the Korea would be reunited under Kim's regime but accepted when Kim told them that Stalin approved the invasion.
It was put to a UN vote on whether UN forces should attempt to gain control of Korea under democratic rule. The motion was passed since the Soviet Union was not present during the vote. Had the Soviets vetoed the proposal, the UN forces would not have been able to press further into Korea. Eventually UN forces captured Pyongyang and Kim's government was forced to flee north over the Yalu river into China.
The Chinese army mobilised and eventually crossed the Yalu river and fought alongside the KPA and Red Army against US, British and UN forces. Eventually they reached a stalemate since neither force could gain full sovereignty of the peninsula. An armistice was signed on July 27, 1953 ending three years of fighting and established the two sovereign nations of North Korea and South Korea. Since no peace treaty was signed, the two Koreas are technically still in a state of war with each other.
Cult of Personality
To coincide with Kim Il-Sung's seventieth birthday in 1982, a 170m tall tower called the Juche Tower was built. It was made up from 25, 550 stone blocks; one for each day of Kim's life.
It is a legal requirement to have a portrait of him, along side his son Kim Jong-Il, hanging in ones home. Everyone is issued a special cloth to dust and clean the portraits each day.
In the 1980's a calcium deposit developed on the back of Kim Il-Sung's neck. It swelled up to the size of an orange at its greatest extent. It was quickly determined that an operation to remove it was not possible due to its close proximity to his spine. North Korean reporters were thereafter forbidden to photograph Kim Il-Sung from the right.
In 1997 with Kim Jong-Il fully consolidating his power after the death of his father, North Korea abandoned the Gregorian calendar that is used in the rest of the world. Instead they use the Juche calendar which starts from the year of Kim Il-Sung's birth (1912) as being year 1. For example, 2015 would be written as Juche 104. To calculate the date in Juche years, simply subtract 1911 from the current year. Dates are often written in North Korea with Juche first; for example: April 12, Juche 104 (2015).
Later Rule
In the early 1990s, North Korea began to experience a famine, labelled as the Great Famine. At the same time the Soviet Union was going through serious economic and social changes as well as suffering a stagnating economy. The Soviets, who had supplied the DPRK with food amongst other things since the late 1940s, began to demand the North Koreans to pay them back; money that the DPRK did not posses. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and food aid stopped almost immediately.
Kim Il-Sung's centrally planned economic system, where the government plans the economic output in advance, proved to be too inflexible to avoid the economic disaster. On the 8th of July 1994, Kim Il-Sung took a heart attack and died shortly afterwards, leaving his country severely bankrupt, malnourished and isolated.
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A mourning period was declared after he died and did not officially end until 1997; three years after death. His son, the long-groomed successor, Kim Jong-Il succeeded him as supreme leader of North Korea. Kim Jong-Il did not become President since Il-Sung was given the honorary title of Eternal President. Instead he was named General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (leader of the ruling party). North Korea is therefore the world's only country that is technically led by a dead man.
State propaganda portrayed Kim Il-Sung as a god to the people and when he died many people felt lost, distressed and confused as many believed that he could not die.
Images for kids
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Kim in 1927, portrait published in his autobiography With the Century
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Members of the 88th Separate Rifle Brigade, an international military unit of the Red Army. Kim is at the front row, second from right. (1943)
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Kim Il-sung (centre) and Kim Tu-bong (second from right) at the joint meeting of the New People's Party and the Workers' Party of North Korea in Pyongyang, 28 August 1946
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Kim Il-sung and Peng Dehuai in 1951
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Kim on a 1956 visit to East Germany, chatting with painter Otto Nagel and Prime Minister Otto Grotewohl
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Kim greets visiting Romanian President Nicolae Ceaușescu in Pyongyang, 1971
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Kim Il-sung's calcium deposit tumor is noticeable on the back of his head in this rare newsreel still image during a diplomatic meeting between him and Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong in Beijing, 1970.
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Kim's first wife, Kim Jŏng Suk, and his son, Kim Jong-il
See also
In Spanish: Kim Il-sung para niños
