Kim Jong Il

=== 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>