Kim Jong Il

== Early life ==

=== Birth ===
Soviet records show that Kim Jong Il was born Yuri Kim ({{lang-ru|Юрий Ким}}).<ref name="birthname">{{Cite news|url=http://nk.chosun.com/english/news/news.html?ACT=detail&res_id=7283 |date=22 August 2002|access-date=19 February 2007|periodical=The Chosun Ilbo|title=Sergeyevna Remembers Kim Jong Il|last=Chung|first=Byoung-sun|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311153844/http://nk.chosun.com/english/news/news.html?ACT=detail&res_id=7283|archive-date=11 March 2007}}<br />{{Cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1671983|publisher=NPR|date=12 February 2004 |access-date=19 February 2007|title=A Visit to Kim Jong Il's Russian Birthplace|last=Sheets|first=Lawrence |archive-date=14 March 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070314055340/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1671983|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0607/05/i_ins.01.html|title=Transcripts|publisher=CNN.com |access-date=15 September 2011|archive-date=4 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201004171812/http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0607/05/i_ins.01.html/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.life.com/gallery/26532/image/51407067/north-korea-secrets-and-lies#index/7|title=Kim Jong-Il, Kim Il-Sung – In the Family Business – North Korea: Secrets and Lies – Photo Gallery|magazine=Life|access-date=19 December 2011|archive-date=8 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120108023027/http://www.life.com/gallery/26532/image/51407067/north-korea-secrets-and-lies#index/7|url-status=dead}}</ref> In literature, it is assumed that he was born in 1941 in either the camp of [[Vyatskoye, Khabarovsk Krai|Vyatskoye]], near [[Khabarovsk]],<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1907197.stm|title=Profile: Kim Jong-il|work=[[BBC News]]|date=16 January 2009|access-date=28 December 2011|archive-date=18 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170218161501/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1907197.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> or camp Voroshilov near [[Ussurijsk|Nikolsk]].<ref>{{citation |author=Christopher Richardson |editor=Adam Cathcart |editor2=Robert Winstanley-Chesters |editor3=Christopher K. Green |title=Change and Continuity in North Korean Politics |chapter=Hagiography of the Kims and the childhood of saints |publisher=Routledge |location=London / New York |page=121 |isbn=978-1134811045 |date=2017}}</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">{{citation |author=Lim Jae-cheon |title=Kim Jong Il's Leadership of North Korea |edition=1 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |pages=9–10 |isbn=978-0203884720 |date=2009}}</ref> Kim's mother, [[Kim Jong-suk|Kim Jong Suk]], was Kim Il Sung's first wife. Inside his family, he was nicknamed "Yura",<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CglyAAAAMAAJ|title=Korea & World Affairs, Volume 27|date=2003 |publisher=Research Center for Peace and Unification|pages=246|language=en|access-date=25 November 2021 |archive-date=25 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211125215042/https://books.google.com/books?id=CglyAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> while his younger brother [[Kim Man-il|Kim Man Il]] (born Alexander Irsenovich Kim) was nicknamed "Shura".<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Ness|first1=Immanuel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DFsYDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA112|title=The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism |last2=Cope |first2=Zak|year=2016|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-0230392786|page=112|language=en|access-date=25 November 2021|archive-date=25 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211125215045/https://books.google.com/books?id=DFsYDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA112 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Kim's official biography states he was born in a secret military camp on [[Paektu Mountain]] ({{Korean|백두산밀영고향집|context=north}}; ''Baekdusan Miryeong Gohyang jip'') in [[Chōsen]] on 16 February 1942.{{sfn|''Kim Jong Il: Brief History''|1998|p=1}} 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.{{sfn|Breen|2012|p=45}}<ref>{{cite news|title=Interview with Lee Min |newspaper=[[Hankyoreh Shinmun]]|date=October 1999}}</ref> Kim Jong Suk died in 1949 from an ectopic pregnancy.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/GF04Dg03.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050613014153/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/GF04Dg03.html|url-status=unfit|archive-date=13 June 2005|title=The Kims' North Korea|date=4 June 2005|work=Asia Times |access-date=28 December 2011}}</ref>

In 1945, Kim was four years old when World War II ended and Korea regained [[Korea under Japanese rule|independence from Japan]]. His father returned to [[Pyongyang]] that September, and in late November Kim 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.<ref name=post>{{cite book|title=Leaders and their followers in a dangerous world: the psychology of political behavior|last=Post|first=Jerrold M.|author2=Alexander George|pages=[https://archive.org/details/leaderstheirfoll0000post/page/243 243–244]|year=2004|publisher=[[Cornell University Press]]|isbn=978-0801441691|url=https://archive.org/details/leaderstheirfoll0000post/page/243}}</ref>

=== Education ===
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 Senior High School|Namsan Higher Middle School]]) in Pyongyang.<ref name="OhHassig2004">{{cite book|author1=Kongdan Oh|author2=Ralph C. Hassig|title=North Korea through the Looking Glass|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fg15OViIgIEC&pg=PA86|year=2004|publisher=Brookings Institution Press|isbn=978-0815798200|page=86 |access-date=7 March 2018|archive-date=4 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804013129/https://books.google.com/books?id=fg15OViIgIEC&pg=PA86|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|''Kim Jong Il: Brief History''|1998|pp=5–6}} 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. {{ISBN|0312322216}}.</ref>{{Page needed|date=January 2022}}

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.{{sfn|''Kim Jong Il: Brief History''|1998|pp=7–9}}

Kim is also said to have received English language education in [[Malta]] in the early 1970s<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20111220/local/The-Dear-Leader-s-secret-stay-in-Malta.399242|title=The Dear Leader's secret stay in Malta|last=Ltd|first=Allied Newspapers|website=Times of Malta|date=20 December 2011 |language=en-GB|access-date=4 April 2019|archive-date=4 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404130549/https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20111220/local/The-Dear-Leader-s-secret-stay-in-Malta.399242|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nknews.org/2014/06/kim-jong-ils-unlikely-maltese-mentor-a-secret-military-agreement/ |title=Kim Jong Il's unlikely Maltese mentor & a secret military agreement|date=11 June 2014|publisher=[[NK News]] – North Korea News|language=en-US|access-date=4 April 2019|archive-date=17 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150417033152/https://www.nknews.org/2014/06/kim-jong-ils-unlikely-maltese-mentor-a-secret-military-agreement/|url-status=live}}</ref> on his infrequent holidays there as a guest of Prime Minister [[Dom Mintoff]].<ref>{{cite news|first=Peter|last=Preston |url=https://www.theguardian.com/comment/story/0,3604,866479,00.html|title=Kim is a baby rattling the sides of a cot|work=The Guardian|date=30 December 2002|access-date=28 December 2011|location=London |archive-date=4 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004095640/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/dec/30/comment.peterpreston|url-status=live}}</ref>

The elder Kim had meanwhile remarried and had another son, [[Kim Pyong-il|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>{{cite web |url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/FB14Dg04.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040213164807/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/FB14Dg04.html|url-status=unfit|archive-date=13 February 2004|title=Happy Birthday, Dear Leader – who's next in line?|work=Asia Times|date=14 February 2004|access-date=28 December 2011}}</ref>