Kim Il Sung Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Later years === [[File:Nicolae Ceauşescu and Kim Il Sung at the Moranbong Stadium.jpg|thumb|Kim and Romanian president [[Nicolae Ceaușescu|Nicolae Ceauşescu]] at [[Kim Il Sung Stadium|Moranbong Stadium]], 1978]] Despite his opposition to de-Stalinization, Kim never officially severed relations with the Soviet Union, and he did not take part in the [[Sino-Soviet split|Sino-Soviet Split]]. After Khrushchev was replaced by [[Leonid Brezhnev]] in 1964, Kim's relations with the Soviet Union became closer. At the same time, Kim was increasingly alienated by Mao's unstable style of leadership, especially during the [[Cultural Revolution]] in the late 1960s. Kim in turn was denounced by Mao's [[Red Guards]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/NH24Dg01.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120823201728/http://atimes.com/atimes/Korea/NH24Dg01.html|url-status=unfit|archive-date=23 August 2012|title=Brezhnev-Kim Il-Sung relations|work=Asia Times}}</ref> At the same time, Kim reinstated relations with most of Eastern Europe's communist countries, primarily with [[Erich Honecker]]'s [[East Germany]] and [[Nicolae Ceaușescu]]'s [[Socialist Republic of Romania|Romania]]. Ceauşescu was heavily influenced by Kim's ideology, and the [[Nicolae Ceauşescu's cult of personality|personality cult]] which [[July Theses|grew around him]] in Romania was very similar to that of Kim.<ref>Behr, Edward Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite, New York: Villard Books, 1991 page 195.</ref> In the 1960s, Kim became impressed with the efforts of [[North Vietnam]]ese Leader [[Ho Chi Minh]] to [[Vietnam War|reunify]] [[Vietnam]] through guerrilla warfare and thought that something similar might be possible in Korea.<ref name="Lankov2015">{{cite book |last=Lankov |first=Andrei |title=[[The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia]] |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-19-939003-8 |location=Oxford}}</ref>{{rp|30–31}} Infiltration and subversion efforts were thus greatly stepped up against US forces and the leadership in South Korea.<ref name="Lankov2015" />{{rp|32–33}} These efforts culminated in an [[Blue House Raid|attempt to storm the Blue House]] and assassinate President [[Park Chung Hee]].<ref name="Lankov2015" />{{rp|32}} North Korean troops thus took a much more aggressive stance toward US forces in and around South Korea, engaging US Army troops in [[Korean DMZ Conflict (1966–69)|fire-fights along the Demilitarized Zone]]. The 1968 capture of the crew of the spy ship [[USS Pueblo (AGER-2)|USS ''Pueblo'']] was a part of this campaign.<ref name="Lankov2015" />{{rp|33}} [[People's Socialist Republic of Albania|Albania]]'s [[Enver Hoxha]] (another independent-minded communist leader) was a fierce enemy of the country and Kim Il Sung, writing in June 1977 that "genuine [[Marxist-Leninists]]" will understand that the "ideology which is guiding the Korean Workers' Party and the Communist Party of China ... is [[Revisionism (Marxism)|revisionist]]" and later that month he added that "in Pyongyang, I believe that even [[Josip Broz Tito|Tito]] will be astonished at the proportions of the cult of his host [Kim Il sung], which has reached a level unheard of anywhere else, either in past or present times, let alone in a country which calls itself socialist."<ref>Enver Hoxha, ''"[https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/ebooks/reflections_on_china_volume_2.pdf Reflections on China II: Extracts from the Political Diary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180715150212/https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/ebooks/reflections_on_china_volume_2.pdf |date=15 July 2018 }}"'', Institute of Marxist–Leninist Studies at the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania, Tirana, 1979, pp 516, 517, 521, 547, 548, 549.</ref><ref>[[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]] Research 17 December 1979 quoting Hoxha's ''Reflections on China Volume II'': "In [[Pyongyang]], I believe that even Tito will be astonished at the proportions of the cult of his host, which has reached a level unheard of anywhere else, either in past or present times, let alone in a country which calls itself socialist." {{cite web |url=http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/300/8/3/text/117-1-7.shtml |title=Albanian Leader's 'Reflections on China,' Volume II |access-date=30 October 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090908153112/http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/300/8/3/text/117-1-7.shtml |archive-date=8 September 2009 |website = CEU.hu }}</ref> He further claimed that "the leadership of the Communist Party of China has betrayed [the working people]. In Korea, too, we can say that the leadership of the Korean Workers' Party is wallowing in the same waters" and claimed that Kim Il Sung was begging for aid from other countries, especially among the Eastern Bloc and [[Non-Aligned Movement|non-aligned]] countries like [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]]. As a result, [[Albania–North Korea relations|relations between North Korea and Albania]] would remain cold and tense right up until Hoxha's death in 1985. Although a resolute anti-communist, [[Zaire]]'s [[Mobutu Sese Seko]] was also heavily influenced by Kim's style of rule.<ref>Howard W. French, [https://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/17/world/with-rebel-gains-and-mobutu-in-france-nation-is-in-effect-without-a-government.html With Rebel Gains and Mobutu in France, Nation Is in Effect Without a Government] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170630230338/http://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/17/world/with-rebel-gains-and-mobutu-in-france-nation-is-in-effect-without-a-government.html |date=30 June 2017 }}, ''The New York Times'' (17 March 1997).</ref> The North Korean government's practice of abducting foreign nationals, such as [[Demographics of South Korea|South Koreans]], [[Japanese people|Japanese]], [[Chinese people|Chinese]], [[Thai people|Thais]], and [[Romanians]], is another practice of Kim Il Sung which persists to the present day.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}} Kim Il Sung planned these operations to seize persons who could be used to support North Korea's overseas intelligence operations, or those who had technical skills to maintain the socialist state's economic infrastructure in farms, construction, hospitals, and heavy industry. According to the Korean War Abductees Family Union (KWAFU), those abducted by North Korea after the war included 2,919 civil servants, 1,613 police, 190 judicial officers and lawyers, and 424 medical practitioners. In the [[Korean Air Lines YS-11 hijacking|hijacking and seizure of Korean Airlines flight YS-11 in 1969]] by North Korean agents, the pilots and mechanics, and others with specialized skills, were the only ones never permitted to return to South Korea. The total number of foreign abductees and disappeared is still unknown but is estimated to include more than 200,000 people. The vast majority of disappearances occurred or were linked to the Korean War, but hundreds of South Koreans and Japanese people were abducted between the 1960s and 1980s. A number of South Koreans and nationals of the People's Republic of China have also been apparently abducted in the 2000s and 2010s. At least 100,000 people remain disappeared.<ref name=Kim-IlSungLegacy /> The [[Constitution of North Korea]] was proclaimed on December 27, 1972, which created the position of the [[President of North Korea]]. Kim gave up his former Premier of the Cabinet position, which he had held since 1948, and became instead president, after the [[1972 North Korean parliamentary election]]. On 14 April 1975, North Korea discontinued most formal use of [[Korean units|its traditional units]] and [[Metrication|adopted]] the [[metric system]].<ref>{{citation|ref={{harvid|APLMF|2015}} |contribution=DPR Korea |contribution-url=http://www.aplmf.org/dpr-korea.html |title=Official site |url=http://www.aplmf.org |publisher=Asia–Pacific Legal Metrology Forum |date=2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170209124429/http://www.aplmf.org/ |archive-date=9 February 2017 }}.</ref> In 1980, he decided that his son Kim Jong Il would succeed him, and increasingly delegated the running of the government to him. The [[Kim dynasty (North Korea)|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 [[6th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea|Sixth Party Congress]] in October 1980, Kim publicly designated his son as his successor. In 1986, a rumor spread that Kim had been assassinated, making the concern for Jong-il's ability to succeed his father actual. Kim dispelled the rumors, however, by making a series of public appearances. It has been argued, however, that the incident helped establish the order of succession{{snd}}the first apparent patrilineal in a communist state{{snd}}which eventually would occur upon Kim Il Sung's death in 1994.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/17/world/kim-il-sung-at-74-is-reported-dead.html?pagewanted=all |title=Kim Il Sung, at 74, Is Reported Dead |access-date=19 March 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170319200122/http://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/17/world/kim-il-sung-at-74-is-reported-dead.html?pagewanted=all |archive-date=19 March 2017 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=17 November 1986 |last1=Haberman |first1=Clyde}}</ref> From about this time, North Korea encountered increasing economic difficulties. South Korea became an economic powerhouse fueled by Japanese and American investment, military aid, and internal economic development, while North Korea [[Economic stagnation|stagnated]] and then [[Economic collapse|declined]] in the 1980s.<ref>{{cite book|title=Korea|last=Bluth|first=Christoph|publisher=Polity Press|year=2008|isbn=978-07456-3357-2|location=Cambridge|page=34}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/North-Korea/From-1970-to-the-death-of-Kim-Il-Sung|title=North Korea - From 1970 to the death of Kim Il-Sung|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|access-date=8 May 2019|archive-date=8 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190508160214/https://www.britannica.com/place/North-Korea/From-1970-to-the-death-of-Kim-Il-Sung|url-status=live}}</ref> The practical effect of ''Juche'' was to cut the country off from virtually all foreign trade in order to make it entirely [[Autarky|self-reliant]]. The [[Chinese economic reform|economic reforms]] of [[Deng Xiaoping]] in [[China]] from 1979 onward meant that trade with the moribund economy of North Korea held decreasing interest for China. The [[Revolutions of 1989]] in [[Eastern Europe]] and the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]], from 1989 to 1992, completed North Korea's virtual isolation. These events led to mounting economic difficulties because Kim refused to issue any economic or political reforms.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.osaarchivum.org/files/holdings/300/8/3/text/37-8-310.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310010727/http://osaarchivum.org/files/holdings/300/8/3/text/37-8-310.shtml|url-status=dead|title=North Korea's Trade With the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe|publisher=Open Society Archives|archive-date=10 March 2016}}</ref> [[File:KimIlSungCalciumDeposit1970.png|thumb|Kim's 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.]] As he aged, starting in the 1970s, Kim developed a growth on the right side of the back of his neck. It was long believed that its close proximity to his brain and spinal cord made it inoperable. However, Juan Reynaldo Sanchez, a defected bodyguard for [[Fidel Castro]] who met Kim in 1986 wrote later that it was Kim's own paranoia that prevented it from being operated on.<ref>Juan Reinaldo Sanchez, ''The Double Life of Fidel Castro: My 17 Years as Personal Bodyguard to El Lider Maximo'', [[Penguin Press]] (2014) p. 234.</ref> Because of its unappealing nature, North Korean reporters and photographers were required to photograph Kim while standing slightly to his left in order to hide the growth from official photographs and newsreels. Hiding the growth became increasingly difficult as the growth reached the size of a [[Baseball (ball)|baseball]] by the late 1980s.<ref name=Cumings2003>{{cite book|last=Cumings|first=Bruce|title=North Korea: Another Country|url=https://archive.org/details/northkoreaanothe00cumi|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/northkoreaanothe00cumi/page/115 115]|year=2003|publisher=New Press|location=New York|isbn=978-1-56584-940-2}}</ref>{{rp|xii}} [[File:80th Anniversary Kim Il-Sung.jpg|300px|thumb|Kim Il Sung's 80th birthday ceremony with international guests, April 1992]] To ensure a full succession of leadership to his son and designated successor Kim Jong Il, Kim turned over his chairmanship of North Korea's [[National Defence Commission|National Defense Commission]]{{snd}}the body mainly responsible for control of the armed forces as well as the supreme commandership of the country's now million-man strong military force, the Korean People's Army{{snd}}to his son in 1991 and 1993. So far, the elder Kim{{snd}}even though he is dead{{snd}}has remained the country's president and the chairman of the [[Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea|Party's Central Military Commission]], the party's organization that has supreme supervision and authority over military matters. In early 1994, Kim began investing in nuclear power to offset energy shortages brought on by economic problems. This was the [[1994 North Korean nuclear crisis|first of many "nuclear crises"]]. On 19 May 1994, Kim ordered spent fuel to be unloaded from the already disputed nuclear research facility in [[Yongbyon nuclear facility|Yongbyon]]. Despite repeated chiding from Western nations, Kim continued to conduct [[North Korean nuclear program|nuclear research]] and carry on with the uranium enrichment program. In June 1994, former [[President of the United States|US President]] [[Jimmy Carter]] traveled to Pyongyang in an effort to persuade Kim to negotiate with the [[Presidency of Bill Clinton|Clinton administration]] over its nuclear program.<ref>{{cite web| last=Blakemore| first=Erin| title=Bill Clinton Once Struck a Nuclear Deal With North Korea| website=history.com| url=https://www.history.com/news/north-korea-nuclear-deal-bill-clinton-agreed-framework| date=1 September 2018| publisher=A&E Television Networks| access-date=3 July 2019| archive-date=27 June 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190627022148/http://www.history.com/news/north-korea-nuclear-deal-bill-clinton-agreed-framework| url-status=live}}</ref> To the astonishment of the United States and the [[International Atomic Energy Agency]], Kim agreed to halt his nuclear research program and seemed to be embarking upon a new opening to the West.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/dprkchron|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120422115356/http://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/dprkchron|url-status=dead|title=Chronology of U.S.-North Korean Nuclear and Missile Diplomacy|publisher=Arms Control Association|archive-date=22 April 2012}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page