Kim Jong Il

=== Initial career ===
Kim Jong Il officially joined the Workers' Party of Korea in July 1961.<ref name="ournation-school.com">{{Cite web|title=략력|url=https://ournation-school.com/great/81/2#greates_wrapper|website=Our Nation School}}</ref> He rose up the ranks during the 1960s,<ref>Adrian Buzo, ''The Making of Modern Korea''. London: Routledge Press, 2002, {{ISBN|978-0415237499}}, p. 127.</ref> and benefited greatly from the [[Kapsan Faction Incident]] around 1967, which was the last credible challenge to Kim Il Sung's rule.<ref>Lim Jae-Cheon, ''Leader Symbols and Personality Cult in North Korea: The Leader State''. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2015, {{ISBN|978-1317567400}}.</ref> This incident marked the first time Kim Jong Il was – at age 26 – given official duties by his father, when the younger Kim took part in the investigation and purges that followed the incident.<ref>Lim Jae-Cheon, ''Kim Jong-il's Leadership of North Korea''. New York: Routledge, 2008, {{ISBN|978-1134017126}}, pp. 38–47.</ref>

In addition, Kim Jong Il gave a speech at the plenum; it was his first as a figure of authority. Kim Jong Il's name was also mentioned in public documents, possibly for the first time, indicating that Kim Il Sung might have already planned for Jong Il to succeed him as leader.<ref>Lim Jae-Cheon, ''Leader Symbols and Personality Cult in North Korea: The Leader State'' (New York: Taylor & Francis, 2015, {{ISBN|978-1317567400}}.</ref><ref name="Lim Jae-Cheon 2008">Lim Jae-Cheon, Kim Jong-il's Leadership of North Korea (New York: Routledge, 2008, {{ISBN|978-1134017126}}, pp. 38–47.</ref>

Only six months after, in an unscheduled meeting of the party, Kim Il Sung called for loyalty in the film industry that had betrayed him with ''An Act of Sincerity''.{{efn|''An Act of Sincerity'', described variously as either a film or a stage play, was produced by Kim To-man after the death of Choe Chae-ryon, the wife of Kapsan Faction leader [[Pak Kum-chol]]. It portrayed Choe in a positive light and emphasized her devotion to her husband. Kim Il-sung disapproved of it and implied that it exhibited misplaced loyalty.<ref name="rajongyil">{{cite book|last=Ra|first=Jong-yil|author-mask=Ra Jong-yil|translator=Jinna Park|title=Inside North Korea's Theocracy: The Rise and Sudden Fall of Jang Song-thaek|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yEyWDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA35|year=2019|publisher=State University of New York Press|location=Albany|isbn=978-1438473734|access-date=4 August 2022|archive-date=4 August 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220804174029/https://books.google.com/books?id=yEyWDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA35|url-status=live}}</ref>}} Kim Jong Il himself announced that he was up to the task and thus begun his influential career in North Korean film-making,<ref name="Lim Jae-Cheon 2008"/> during which he made significant efforts to further intensify the personality cult of his father and attach himself to it.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Levi|first=Nicolas|date=2015-06-30|title=Kim Jong Il: a film director who ran a country|url=https://www.jomswsge.com/,81826,0,2.html|journal=Journal of Modern Science|language=en |volume=25|issue=2|pages=155–166|issn=1734-2031}}</ref>

Kim Jong Il was elected to the [[Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea|Central Committee]] in 1972 and became its secretary the following year.<ref name="ournation-school.com"/>

However, when Kim Il Sung began to contemplate the succession question in the early 1970s,<ref>{{citation |title=Kim Il-Sung: The North Korean Leader |last=Suh |first=Dae-Sook |year=1988 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0231065733 |url=https://archive.org/details/00book729884 |pages=276–280 }}</ref> it was not certain that Kim Jong Il would be his successor.<ref name="rajongyil"/> There was Kim's uncle, [[Kim Yong Ju]], who was once believed to be Kim Il Sung's eventual successor<ref>"The Losers in N. Korea's Ruling Family", ''Chosun Ilbo'', 17 February 2011.</ref> but who had made several mistakes in the struggle for power, had serious flaws,<ref name="rajongyil"/> and was becoming increasingly marginalized.<ref name="memoirs">Hwang Jang Yop's Memoirs (2006)</ref> Then there was the more serious threat posed by his stepmother's, [[Kim Song-ae]]'s, children, especially by the eldest, [[Kim Pyong Il]].<ref name="rajongyil"/>

In the end, Kim Jong Il won out: Kim Yong Ju was removed from his top posts and demoted to vice-premier.<ref name="memoirs"/> Then Kim Song-ae lost her position as [[Socialist Women's Union of Korea|chair of the KDWL]], which was her vital power base.<ref>Jang Jin-sung: Dear Leader: Poet, Spy, Escapee – A Look Inside North Korea, 2014.</ref> Kim Pyong Il had many positive characteristics<ref name="rajongyil"/> but he was also known as a womanizer who threw raucous parties where the attendees sometimes shouted, "Long live Kim Pyong Il!" Kim Jong Il reported this to his father, knowing that it could be portrayed as a threat to the personality cult surrounding him. Reportedly, Kim Il Sung was infuriated and Pyong Il thus fell out of favor, strengthening Kim Jong Il's position.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/left-out-in-the-cold-the-man-who-would-be-kim-7561670.html|first=Shaun|last=Walker|title=Left out in the cold: the man who would be Kim|periodical=The Independent|date=2012-03-12|access-date=2024-03-10|archive-date=16 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171116000725/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/left-out-in-the-cold-the-man-who-would-be-kim-7561670.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1979, Kim Pyong Il began a series of diplomatic postings in [[Europe]], arranged so as then he couldn't influence politics in North Korea.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk03100&num=2040|title=Photos of Kim Jong Il's Brother, Kim Pyong Il and Recent Visits|last=Kim|first=Song-A|date=2007-05-09|access-date=2024-03-10|periodical=Daily NK|archive-date=27 September 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927014305/http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk03100&num=2040|url-status=live}}</ref> Kim Pyong Il only returned to North Korea in 2019.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nknews.org/2019/11/kim-pyong-il-long-time-north-korean-ambassador-in-europe-returns-home/|title=Kim Pyong Il, long-time North Korean ambassador in Europe, returns home|date=8 November 2019|website=[[NK News]]|access-date=10 March 2024|archive-date=1 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200501192209/https://www.nknews.org/2019/11/kim-pyong-il-long-time-north-korean-ambassador-in-europe-returns-home/|url-status=live}}</ref>

According to Kim Jong Il's official biography, the Central Committee already appointed him successor to Kim Il Sung in 1974. The first public confirmation of Kim Jong Il's position as successor came in 1977, when in a booklet he was designated as Kim Il Sung's only heir.<ref>{{citation |title=Kim Il-Sung: The North Korean Leader |last=Suh |first=Dae-Sook |year=1988 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0231065733 |url=https://archive.org/details/00book729884 |pages=276–280 }}</ref>