KIM IL-SUNG
Name: Kim Il-sung
Born: 15 April 1912 Pyongyang, Japanese Korea
Died: 8 July 1994 Pyongyang, DPRK
Kim Il-sung (15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was the North Korean leader from its
founding in early 1948 until his death, when he was succeeded by his son Kim
Jong-il. He held the posts of Prime Minister from 1948 to 1972 and President
from 1972 to his death. He was also the General Secretary of the Workers Party
of Korea where he exercised autocratic power. As leader of North Korea, he ended
up switching from a Marxist-Leninist ideology to his self-developed Juche idea
and established a personality cult. North Korea officially refers to him as the
"Great Leader" and he is designated in the constitution as the country's "Eternal
President". His birthday and the day of his death are public holidays in North
Korea.
Much of the early records of his life come from his own personal accounts and
official North Korean government publications, which often conflict with
independent sources. Nevertheless, there is some consensus on at least the basic
story of his early life, corroborated by witnesses from the period. Kim was born
to Kim Hyŏng-jik and Kang Pan-sŏk, who gave him the name Kim Sŏng-ju, and had
two younger brothers, Ch’ŏl-chu and Yŏng-ju. He was born in Nam-ri, Kophyŏng
District, Taedong County, South P'yŏngan Province (currently the Mangyŏngdae
area of P'yŏngyang), then under Japanese occupation. The ancestral seat (pon’gwan)
of Kim's family is Chŏnju, North Chŏlla Province, and what little that is known
about the family contends that sometime around the time of the Korean-Japanese
war of 1592-98, a direct ancestor moved north. The claim may be understood in
light of the fact that the early Chosŏn government's policy of populating the
north resulted in mass resettlement of southern farmers in Phyŏngan and Hamgyŏng
regions in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. At any rate, the majority of
the Chŏnju Kim, today live in North Korea, and extant Chŏnju Kim genealogies
provide spotty records. Moreover, a persistent rumour alleges that during the
North Korean occupation of Seoul in the Korean War, the North Koreans collected
all the available Chŏnju Kim genealogies and took them to the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea.
The exact history of Kim's family is somewhat obscure. The family was neither
very poor nor comfortably well-off, but was always a step away from poverty. Kim
was raised in a Protestant Christian family with strong ties to the church: his
maternal grandfather was a Protestant minister, his father had gone to a
missionary school, and both his parents were reportedly very active in the
religious community. According to the official version, Kim's family
participated in Japanese opposition activities and in 1920 they fled to
Manchuria, where he became fluent in Chinese. The more objective view seems to
be that his family settled in Manchuria like many Koreans at the time to escape
famine. Nonetheless, Kim’s parents apparently did play a minor role in some
activist groups, though whether their cause was missionary, nationalist, or both
is unclear.
Kim’s father died in 1926, when Kim was fourteen years old. Kim attended Yulin
Middle School in Jilin, where he rejected the feudal traditions of older
generation Koreans and became interested in communist ideologies; his formal
education ended when he was arrested and jailed for subversive activities. At
seventeen, Kim had become the youngest member of an underground Marxist
organization with less than twenty members, led by Hŏ So, who belonged to the
South Manchurian Communist Youth Association. The police discovered the group
three weeks after it was formed in 1929, and jailed Kim for several months.
He joined various anti-Japanese guerrilla groups in northern China, and in 1935
he became a member of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army, a guerrilla group
led by the Communist Party of China. Kim was appointed the same year to serve as
political commissar for the 3rd detachment of the second division, around 160
soldiers. It was here that Kim met the man who would become his mentor as a
communist, Wei Zhengmin, Kim’s immediate superior officer, who was serving at
the time as chairman of the Political Committee of the Northeast Anti-Japanese
United Army. Wei reported directly to Kang Sheng, a high-ranking party member
close to Mao Zedong in Yan'an, until Wei's death on March 8, 1941.
Also in 1935 Kim took the name Kim Il-sung, meaning "become the sun." By the
end of the war, this name would be legendary in Korea, and some historians have
claimed that it was not Kim Sŏng-ju who originally made the name famous. Soviet
propagandist Grigory Mekler, who claims to have prepared Kim to lead North Korea,
says that Kim assumed this name while in the Soviet Union in the early 1940s
from a former commander who had died. On the other hand, some Koreans simply
did not believe that someone as young as Kim could have anything to do with the
legend. Historian Andrei Lankov has claimed that the rumor Kim Il Sung was
somehow switched with the “original” Kim is unlikely to be true. Several
witnesses knew Kim before and after his time in the Soviet Union, including his
superior, Zhou Baozhong, who dismissed the claim of a “second” Kim in his
diaries.
Kim was appointed commander of the 6th division in 1937, at the age of 24,
controlling a few hundred men in a group that came to be known as “Kim Il Sung’s
division.” It was while he was in command of this division that he executed a
raid on Poch’onbo, on June 4. Although Kim’s division only captured a small
Japanese-held town just across the Korean border for a few hours, it was
nonetheless considered a military success at this time, when the guerrilla units
had experienced difficulty in capturing any enemy territory. This accomplishment
would grant Kim some measure of fame among Chinese guerrillas, and North Korean
biographies would later exploit as a great victory for Korea. Kim was appointed
commander of the 2nd operational region for the 1st Army, but by the end of 1940,
he was the only 1st Army leader still alive. Pursued by Japanese troops, Kim and
what remained of his army escaped by crossing the Amur river into the Soviet
Union. Kim was sent to a camp near Khabarovsk, where the Korean Communist
guerrillas were retrained by the Soviets. Kim became a Captain in the Soviet Red
Army and served in it until the end of World War II.
The Communist Party of Korea had been founded in 1925, but had soon been
disbanded due to internal strife. In 1931, Kim had joined the Communist Party of
China. When he returned to Korea, in September 1945, with the Soviet forces, he
was installed by the Soviets as head of the Provisional People's Committee. He
was not, at this time, the head of the Communist Party, whose headquarters were
in Seoul in the U.S.-occupied south. During his early years as leader, he
assumed a position of influence largely due to the backing of the Korean
population which was supportive of his fight against Japanese occupation.
One of Kim's most enduring accomplishments was his establishment of a
professional army, the North Korean People's Army (NKPA), formed from a cadre of
guerrillas and former soldiers who had gained combat experience in battles
against the Japanese and later Nationalist Chinese troops. From their ranks,
using Soviet advisers and equipment, Kim constructed a large army skilled in
infiltration tactics and guerrilla warfare. Before the outbreak of the Korean
War, Joseph Stalin equipped the NKPA with modern heavy tanks, trucks, artillery,
and small arms (at the time, the South Korean Army had nothing remotely
comparable either in numbers of troops or equipment). Kim also formed an air
force, equipped at first with ex-Soviet propeller-driven fighter and attack
aircraft. Later, North Korean pilot candidates were sent to the Soviet Union and
China to train in MiG-15 jet aircraft at secret bases.
By 1948, it was apparent that, due to political and ideological polarization
between the two emerging Korean governments, immediate peaceful re-unification
would not be possible. After the South formally declared independence as the
Republic of Korea, the people of northern Korea chose Kim Il Sung as the prime
minister of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), forming a new
country that would henceforth be commonly known as "North Korea". The Communist
Party merged with the New People's Party to form the Workers Party of North
Korea (of which Kim was vice-chairman). In 1949, the Workers Party of North
Korea merged with its southern counterpart to become the Workers Party of Korea
(WPK) with Kim as party chairman.
U.S. occupied South Korea (ROK) usurped power from locally controlled "People's
Committees" and reinstalled many of the former land owners and police that had
held office when Korea was under Japanese colonial rule. These moves were met
with heavy resistance and open rebellion in some parts of South Korea such as
the southern islands. After several altercations at the border (allegedly
instigated in part by the U.S. command), it appeared that civil war might be
inevitable. North Korean troops crossed the border on 25 June 1950 intending to
unify the country under a communist government. Evidence suggests that the North's
bid to reunify the country was met with a wide range of popular support across
the south. Archival material suggests that the decision was Kim's
own initiative rather than a Soviet one. Evidence suggests that Soviet
intelligence, through its espionage sources in the U.S. government and British
SIS, had obtained information on the limitations of U.S. atomic bomb stockpiles
as well as defence program cuts, leading Stalin to conclude that the Truman
administration would not intervene in Korea.
The People's Republic of China acquiesced only reluctantly to the idea of Korean
reunification after being told by Kim that Stalin had approved the action,
and did not provide direct military support (other than logistics channels)
until United Nations troops, largely comprised of U.S. forces, had nearly
reached the Yalu River late in 1950. North Korean forces captured Seoul and
occupied most of the South, but were soon driven back by the U.S. led invasion.
By October, U.S. forces had retaken Seoul and on October 19 captured P’yŏngyang,
forcing Kim and his government to flee to China.
On 25 October 1950, after sending various warnings of their intent to intervene
if UN forces did not halt their advance, Chinese troops in their thousands
crossed the Yalu River and entered the war as allies of the NKPA. The UN troops
were forced to withdraw and Chinese troops retook P’yŏngyang in December and
Seoul in January 1951. In March U.N. and U.S. forces began a new offensive,
retaking Seoul. After a series of offensives and counter-offensives by both
sides, followed by a gruelling period of largely static trench warfare, the
front was stabilized along what eventually became the permanent "Armistice Line"
of 27 July 1953. North Korea was devastated by U.S. bombardment with few
buildings left standing. Upwards of 3.5 million Koreans were killed in the
battles, and a long list of North Korean war crimes have been documented
including use of biological warfare such as a constituted effort to spread
cholera, and the widespread massacre of civilians.
Restored as leader of North Korea, Kim embarked on the reconstruction of the
country devastated by the war. He launched a five-year national economic plan to
establish a command economy, with all industry owned by the state and all
agriculture collectivised. The nation was founded on egalitarian principles
intent on eliminating class differences and the economy was based upon the needs
of workers and peasants. The economy was focused on heavy industry and arms
production. Both South and North Korea retained huge armed forces to defend the
1953 ceasefire line, although no foreign troops were permanently stationed in
North Korea.
During the 1950s, Kim was seen as an orthodox Communist leader. He rejected the
USSR's destalinization and began to distance himself from his sponsor, including
the removal of any mention of his Red Army career from official history. Kim was
seen by many as an influential anti-revisionist leader in the communist movement.
In 1956, anti-Kim elements encouraged by de-Stalinization in the Soviet Union
emerged within the Party to criticize Kim and demand reforms. After a period
of vacillation, Kim instituted a purge, executing some found guilty of treason
and forcing the rest into exile. When the Sino-Soviet split developed in the
1960s, Kim initially sided with the Chinese but never severed his relations with
the Soviets. When the Cultural Revolution broke out in China after 1966, Kim
veered back to the Soviet side. At the same time, he established an extensive
personality cult, and all North Koreans began to address him as "Great Leader".
Kim developed the policy and ideology of Juche (self-reliance)
rather than becoming a soviet satellite state.
In the mid-1960s, Kim became impressed with the efforts of Hồ Chí Minh to
reunify Vietnam through guerrilla warfare and thought something similar might be
possible in Korea. Infiltration and subversion efforts were thus greatly stepped
up against U.S. occupying forces and the leadership that they supported. Efforts
that culminated in an attempt to storm the Blue House and assassinate President
Park Chung-hee. North Korean troops thus took a much more aggressive stance
toward U.S. forces in and around South Korea, engaging U.S. Army troops in
firefights along the Demilitarized Zone. The 1968 capture of the crew of the spy
ship USS Pueblo was a part of this campaign.
A new constitution was proclaimed in December 1972, under which Kim became
President of North Korea. By this time, he had decided that his son Kim Jong-il
would succeed him, and increasingly delegated the running of the government to
him. The Kim family was supported by the army, due to Kim Il-sung's
revolutionary record and the support of the veteran defense minister, O Chin-u.
At the Sixth Party Congress in October 1980, Kim publicly designated his son as
his successor.
From about this time, however, North Korea encountered increasing economic
difficulties after many successful decades of economic development. The economic
reforms of Deng Xiaoping in China from 1979 onward meant that trade with
socialist North Korea held decreasing interest for China. The collapse of
communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, during 1989–1991, completed
North Korea's virtual isolation. These events along with economic sanctions
imposed by the U.S. led to mounting economic difficulties. North Korea
experienced more rapid industrialization, a lower infant mortality rate, and
higher life expectancy than South Korea for several decades. However, by the
1990's the lack of trading partners after the collapse of the Soviet Union, U.S.
sanctions, and damaging floods, caused North Korea to face years of hardship.
North Korea repeatedly predicted that Korea would be re-united before Kim's 70th
birthday in 1982, and there were fears in the West that Kim would launch a new
Korean War. But, by this time, the disparity in economic and military power
between the North and the South (where the U.S. military presence continues)
made such a venture impossible.
As he aged, Kim developed a large growth on the back of his neck - a calcium
deposit, or hok in Korean, usually resulting from childhood malnutrition. Its
location near his brain and spinal cord made it inoperable. Because of its
unappealing nature, North Korean photographers always shot from the same slight-left
angle, which became a difficult task as the growth reached the size of a
baseball.
In 1994, Kim began investing in nuclear power to offset energy issues brought on
by economic problems. This was the first of many "nuclear
crises", although the U.S. had nuclear weapons in South Korea as early as 1953,
and threatened to use them on numerous occasions. On 19 May
1994, Kim ordered spent fuel to be unloaded from the already disputed nuclear
research facility in Yongbyon. Despite repeated chiding from Western nations,
Kim continued to conduct nuclear research and carry on with the uranium
enrichment program. In June 1994, former President Jimmy Carter travelled to
Pyongyang for talks with Kim. To the astonishment of the United States and the
IAEA, Kim agreed to stop his nuclear research program and seemed to be embarking
upon a new opening to the West.
By the 1990s, North Korea was nearly isolated from the outside world, except for
limited contacts with China. Its economy was virtually bankrupt, crippled by
huge expenditure on armaments and sanctions, with an agricultural sector unable
to feed its population due to a lack of arable land, but North Korean media
continued to lionize Kim. Kim died suddenly of a heart attack in Pyongyang on
July 8, 1994, bequeathing the country's mounting crisis to Kim Jong-il. His
funeral in Pyongyang was attended by hundreds of thousands of people, many of
whom were weeping and crying Kim's name during the funeral procession. Kim Il-sung's
body was placed in a public mausoleum at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace. Now his
preserved and embalmed body lies under a glass coffin. His head rests on a
pillow and he is covered by a red flag acting as a blanket, possibly a symbol of
communism. Video of the funeral at Pyongyang was broadcast on several networks,
and can now be found on various internet sites.
Name: Kim Il-sung
Born: 15 April 1912 Pyongyang, Japanese Korea
Died: 8 July 1994 Pyongyang, DPRK
Kim Il-sung (15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was the North Korean leader from its
founding in early 1948 until his death, when he was succeeded by his son Kim
Jong-il. He held the posts of Prime Minister from 1948 to 1972 and President
from 1972 to his death. He was also the General Secretary of the Workers Party
of Korea where he exercised autocratic power. As leader of North Korea, he ended
up switching from a Marxist-Leninist ideology to his self-developed Juche idea
and established a personality cult. North Korea officially refers to him as the
"Great Leader" and he is designated in the constitution as the country's "Eternal
President". His birthday and the day of his death are public holidays in North
Korea.
Much of the early records of his life come from his own personal accounts and
official North Korean government publications, which often conflict with
independent sources. Nevertheless, there is some consensus on at least the basic
story of his early life, corroborated by witnesses from the period. Kim was born
to Kim Hyŏng-jik and Kang Pan-sŏk, who gave him the name Kim Sŏng-ju, and had
two younger brothers, Ch’ŏl-chu and Yŏng-ju. He was born in Nam-ri, Kophyŏng
District, Taedong County, South P'yŏngan Province (currently the Mangyŏngdae
area of P'yŏngyang), then under Japanese occupation. The ancestral seat (pon’gwan)
of Kim's family is Chŏnju, North Chŏlla Province, and what little that is known
about the family contends that sometime around the time of the Korean-Japanese
war of 1592-98, a direct ancestor moved north. The claim may be understood in
light of the fact that the early Chosŏn government's policy of populating the
north resulted in mass resettlement of southern farmers in Phyŏngan and Hamgyŏng
regions in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. At any rate, the majority of
the Chŏnju Kim, today live in North Korea, and extant Chŏnju Kim genealogies
provide spotty records. Moreover, a persistent rumour alleges that during the
North Korean occupation of Seoul in the Korean War, the North Koreans collected
all the available Chŏnju Kim genealogies and took them to the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea.
The exact history of Kim's family is somewhat obscure. The family was neither
very poor nor comfortably well-off, but was always a step away from poverty. Kim
was raised in a Protestant Christian family with strong ties to the church: his
maternal grandfather was a Protestant minister, his father had gone to a
missionary school, and both his parents were reportedly very active in the
religious community. According to the official version, Kim's family
participated in Japanese opposition activities and in 1920 they fled to
Manchuria, where he became fluent in Chinese. The more objective view seems to
be that his family settled in Manchuria like many Koreans at the time to escape
famine. Nonetheless, Kim’s parents apparently did play a minor role in some
activist groups, though whether their cause was missionary, nationalist, or both
is unclear.
Kim’s father died in 1926, when Kim was fourteen years old. Kim attended Yulin
Middle School in Jilin, where he rejected the feudal traditions of older
generation Koreans and became interested in communist ideologies; his formal
education ended when he was arrested and jailed for subversive activities. At
seventeen, Kim had become the youngest member of an underground Marxist
organization with less than twenty members, led by Hŏ So, who belonged to the
South Manchurian Communist Youth Association. The police discovered the group
three weeks after it was formed in 1929, and jailed Kim for several months.
He joined various anti-Japanese guerrilla groups in northern China, and in 1935
he became a member of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army, a guerrilla group
led by the Communist Party of China. Kim was appointed the same year to serve as
political commissar for the 3rd detachment of the second division, around 160
soldiers. It was here that Kim met the man who would become his mentor as a
communist, Wei Zhengmin, Kim’s immediate superior officer, who was serving at
the time as chairman of the Political Committee of the Northeast Anti-Japanese
United Army. Wei reported directly to Kang Sheng, a high-ranking party member
close to Mao Zedong in Yan'an, until Wei's death on March 8, 1941.
Also in 1935 Kim took the name Kim Il-sung, meaning "become the sun." By the
end of the war, this name would be legendary in Korea, and some historians have
claimed that it was not Kim Sŏng-ju who originally made the name famous. Soviet
propagandist Grigory Mekler, who claims to have prepared Kim to lead North Korea,
says that Kim assumed this name while in the Soviet Union in the early 1940s
from a former commander who had died. On the other hand, some Koreans simply
did not believe that someone as young as Kim could have anything to do with the
legend. Historian Andrei Lankov has claimed that the rumor Kim Il Sung was
somehow switched with the “original” Kim is unlikely to be true. Several
witnesses knew Kim before and after his time in the Soviet Union, including his
superior, Zhou Baozhong, who dismissed the claim of a “second” Kim in his
diaries.
Kim was appointed commander of the 6th division in 1937, at the age of 24,
controlling a few hundred men in a group that came to be known as “Kim Il Sung’s
division.” It was while he was in command of this division that he executed a
raid on Poch’onbo, on June 4. Although Kim’s division only captured a small
Japanese-held town just across the Korean border for a few hours, it was
nonetheless considered a military success at this time, when the guerrilla units
had experienced difficulty in capturing any enemy territory. This accomplishment
would grant Kim some measure of fame among Chinese guerrillas, and North Korean
biographies would later exploit as a great victory for Korea. Kim was appointed
commander of the 2nd operational region for the 1st Army, but by the end of 1940,
he was the only 1st Army leader still alive. Pursued by Japanese troops, Kim and
what remained of his army escaped by crossing the Amur river into the Soviet
Union. Kim was sent to a camp near Khabarovsk, where the Korean Communist
guerrillas were retrained by the Soviets. Kim became a Captain in the Soviet Red
Army and served in it until the end of World War II.
The Communist Party of Korea had been founded in 1925, but had soon been
disbanded due to internal strife. In 1931, Kim had joined the Communist Party of
China. When he returned to Korea, in September 1945, with the Soviet forces, he
was installed by the Soviets as head of the Provisional People's Committee. He
was not, at this time, the head of the Communist Party, whose headquarters were
in Seoul in the U.S.-occupied south. During his early years as leader, he
assumed a position of influence largely due to the backing of the Korean
population which was supportive of his fight against Japanese occupation.
One of Kim's most enduring accomplishments was his establishment of a
professional army, the North Korean People's Army (NKPA), formed from a cadre of
guerrillas and former soldiers who had gained combat experience in battles
against the Japanese and later Nationalist Chinese troops. From their ranks,
using Soviet advisers and equipment, Kim constructed a large army skilled in
infiltration tactics and guerrilla warfare. Before the outbreak of the Korean
War, Joseph Stalin equipped the NKPA with modern heavy tanks, trucks, artillery,
and small arms (at the time, the South Korean Army had nothing remotely
comparable either in numbers of troops or equipment). Kim also formed an air
force, equipped at first with ex-Soviet propeller-driven fighter and attack
aircraft. Later, North Korean pilot candidates were sent to the Soviet Union and
China to train in MiG-15 jet aircraft at secret bases.
By 1948, it was apparent that, due to political and ideological polarization
between the two emerging Korean governments, immediate peaceful re-unification
would not be possible. After the South formally declared independence as the
Republic of Korea, the people of northern Korea chose Kim Il Sung as the prime
minister of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), forming a new
country that would henceforth be commonly known as "North Korea". The Communist
Party merged with the New People's Party to form the Workers Party of North
Korea (of which Kim was vice-chairman). In 1949, the Workers Party of North
Korea merged with its southern counterpart to become the Workers Party of Korea
(WPK) with Kim as party chairman.
U.S. occupied South Korea (ROK) usurped power from locally controlled "People's
Committees" and reinstalled many of the former land owners and police that had
held office when Korea was under Japanese colonial rule. These moves were met
with heavy resistance and open rebellion in some parts of South Korea such as
the southern islands. After several altercations at the border (allegedly
instigated in part by the U.S. command), it appeared that civil war might be
inevitable. North Korean troops crossed the border on 25 June 1950 intending to
unify the country under a communist government. Evidence suggests that the North's
bid to reunify the country was met with a wide range of popular support across
the south. Archival material suggests that the decision was Kim's
own initiative rather than a Soviet one. Evidence suggests that Soviet
intelligence, through its espionage sources in the U.S. government and British
SIS, had obtained information on the limitations of U.S. atomic bomb stockpiles
as well as defence program cuts, leading Stalin to conclude that the Truman
administration would not intervene in Korea.
The People's Republic of China acquiesced only reluctantly to the idea of Korean
reunification after being told by Kim that Stalin had approved the action,
and did not provide direct military support (other than logistics channels)
until United Nations troops, largely comprised of U.S. forces, had nearly
reached the Yalu River late in 1950. North Korean forces captured Seoul and
occupied most of the South, but were soon driven back by the U.S. led invasion.
By October, U.S. forces had retaken Seoul and on October 19 captured P’yŏngyang,
forcing Kim and his government to flee to China.
On 25 October 1950, after sending various warnings of their intent to intervene
if UN forces did not halt their advance, Chinese troops in their thousands
crossed the Yalu River and entered the war as allies of the NKPA. The UN troops
were forced to withdraw and Chinese troops retook P’yŏngyang in December and
Seoul in January 1951. In March U.N. and U.S. forces began a new offensive,
retaking Seoul. After a series of offensives and counter-offensives by both
sides, followed by a gruelling period of largely static trench warfare, the
front was stabilized along what eventually became the permanent "Armistice Line"
of 27 July 1953. North Korea was devastated by U.S. bombardment with few
buildings left standing. Upwards of 3.5 million Koreans were killed in the
battles, and a long list of North Korean war crimes have been documented
including use of biological warfare such as a constituted effort to spread
cholera, and the widespread massacre of civilians.
Restored as leader of North Korea, Kim embarked on the reconstruction of the
country devastated by the war. He launched a five-year national economic plan to
establish a command economy, with all industry owned by the state and all
agriculture collectivised. The nation was founded on egalitarian principles
intent on eliminating class differences and the economy was based upon the needs
of workers and peasants. The economy was focused on heavy industry and arms
production. Both South and North Korea retained huge armed forces to defend the
1953 ceasefire line, although no foreign troops were permanently stationed in
North Korea.
During the 1950s, Kim was seen as an orthodox Communist leader. He rejected the
USSR's destalinization and began to distance himself from his sponsor, including
the removal of any mention of his Red Army career from official history. Kim was
seen by many as an influential anti-revisionist leader in the communist movement.
In 1956, anti-Kim elements encouraged by de-Stalinization in the Soviet Union
emerged within the Party to criticize Kim and demand reforms. After a period
of vacillation, Kim instituted a purge, executing some found guilty of treason
and forcing the rest into exile. When the Sino-Soviet split developed in the
1960s, Kim initially sided with the Chinese but never severed his relations with
the Soviets. When the Cultural Revolution broke out in China after 1966, Kim
veered back to the Soviet side. At the same time, he established an extensive
personality cult, and all North Koreans began to address him as "Great Leader".
Kim developed the policy and ideology of Juche (self-reliance)
rather than becoming a soviet satellite state.
In the mid-1960s, Kim became impressed with the efforts of Hồ Chí Minh to
reunify Vietnam through guerrilla warfare and thought something similar might be
possible in Korea. Infiltration and subversion efforts were thus greatly stepped
up against U.S. occupying forces and the leadership that they supported. Efforts
that culminated in an attempt to storm the Blue House and assassinate President
Park Chung-hee. North Korean troops thus took a much more aggressive stance
toward U.S. forces in and around South Korea, engaging U.S. Army troops in
firefights along the Demilitarized Zone. The 1968 capture of the crew of the spy
ship USS Pueblo was a part of this campaign.
A new constitution was proclaimed in December 1972, under which Kim became
President of North Korea. By this time, he had decided that his son Kim Jong-il
would succeed him, and increasingly delegated the running of the government to
him. The Kim family was supported by the army, due to Kim Il-sung's
revolutionary record and the support of the veteran defense minister, O Chin-u.
At the Sixth Party Congress in October 1980, Kim publicly designated his son as
his successor.
From about this time, however, North Korea encountered increasing economic
difficulties after many successful decades of economic development. The economic
reforms of Deng Xiaoping in China from 1979 onward meant that trade with
socialist North Korea held decreasing interest for China. The collapse of
communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, during 1989–1991, completed
North Korea's virtual isolation. These events along with economic sanctions
imposed by the U.S. led to mounting economic difficulties. North Korea
experienced more rapid industrialization, a lower infant mortality rate, and
higher life expectancy than South Korea for several decades. However, by the
1990's the lack of trading partners after the collapse of the Soviet Union, U.S.
sanctions, and damaging floods, caused North Korea to face years of hardship.
North Korea repeatedly predicted that Korea would be re-united before Kim's 70th
birthday in 1982, and there were fears in the West that Kim would launch a new
Korean War. But, by this time, the disparity in economic and military power
between the North and the South (where the U.S. military presence continues)
made such a venture impossible.
As he aged, Kim developed a large growth on the back of his neck - a calcium
deposit, or hok in Korean, usually resulting from childhood malnutrition. Its
location near his brain and spinal cord made it inoperable. Because of its
unappealing nature, North Korean photographers always shot from the same slight-left
angle, which became a difficult task as the growth reached the size of a
baseball.
In 1994, Kim began investing in nuclear power to offset energy issues brought on
by economic problems. This was the first of many "nuclear
crises", although the U.S. had nuclear weapons in South Korea as early as 1953,
and threatened to use them on numerous occasions. On 19 May
1994, Kim ordered spent fuel to be unloaded from the already disputed nuclear
research facility in Yongbyon. Despite repeated chiding from Western nations,
Kim continued to conduct nuclear research and carry on with the uranium
enrichment program. In June 1994, former President Jimmy Carter travelled to
Pyongyang for talks with Kim. To the astonishment of the United States and the
IAEA, Kim agreed to stop his nuclear research program and seemed to be embarking
upon a new opening to the West.
By the 1990s, North Korea was nearly isolated from the outside world, except for
limited contacts with China. Its economy was virtually bankrupt, crippled by
huge expenditure on armaments and sanctions, with an agricultural sector unable
to feed its population due to a lack of arable land, but North Korean media
continued to lionize Kim. Kim died suddenly of a heart attack in Pyongyang on
July 8, 1994, bequeathing the country's mounting crisis to Kim Jong-il. His
funeral in Pyongyang was attended by hundreds of thousands of people, many of
whom were weeping and crying Kim's name during the funeral procession. Kim Il-sung's
body was placed in a public mausoleum at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace. Now his
preserved and embalmed body lies under a glass coffin. His head rests on a
pillow and he is covered by a red flag acting as a blanket, possibly a symbol of
communism. Video of the funeral at Pyongyang was broadcast on several networks,
and can now be found on various internet sites.