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! === Communist and guerrilla activities === [[File:1943-10-05-μ 88μ¬λ¨_λμ.jpg|thumb|250px|left|Members of the 88th Separate Rifle Brigade, an international military unit of the Red Army, in 1943. Kim is sitting in the front row, second from the right.]] North Korean government sources credit Kim with founding the [[Down-with-Imperialism Union]] in 1926.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Kim Il-sung Death Anniversary: How the North Korea Founder Created a Cult of Personality |last=Smith |first=Lydia |work=International Business Times UK |date=8 July 2014 |access-date=1 October 2014 |url=http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/kim-il-sung-death-anniversary-how-north-korea-founder-became-cult-personality-1455758 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006150839/http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/kim-il-sung-death-anniversary-how-north-korea-founder-became-cult-personality-1455758 |archive-date=6 October 2014 }}</ref> He attended Whasung Military Academy in 1926, but found the academy's training methods outdated and quit it in 1927. He then attended [[Jilin Yuwen High School|Yuwen Middle School]] in [[Republic of China (1912β1949)|China]]'s [[Jilin|Jilin province]] until 1930,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/28/world/asia/28korea.html?_r=1&hp |work=The New York Times |title=Carter Wins Release of American in North Korea |first1=Choe |last1=Sang-Hun |first2=Sharon |last2=Lafraniere |date=27 August 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170630231240/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/28/world/asia/28korea.html?_r=1&hp |archive-date=30 June 2017 }}</ref> when he rejected the feudal traditions of older-generation Koreans and became interested in [[communist]] ideologies. Seventeen-year-old Kim became the youngest member of the {{Ill|Korean Communist Youth Association|ko|μ‘°μ 곡μ°μ²λ ν}}, an underground [[Marxism|Marxist]] organization with fewer than twenty members. It was led by HΕ So ({{Korean|hangul=νμ|hanja=許η¬|labels=no}}), who belonged to the {{Ill|South Manchurian Communist Youth Association|ko|λ¨λ§νμΈμ²λ μ΄λλ§Ή}}. The police discovered the group three weeks after it formed in 1929, and jailed Kim for several months. Kim's formal education ended after his arrest and imprisonment.<ref name="Lankov"/>{{rp|52}}<ref name=Suh1988/>{{rp|7}} In 1931, Kim joined the [[Chinese Communist Party]] (CCP){{snd}}the [[Communist Party of Korea]] had been founded in 1925, but had been thrown out of the [[Communist International]] in the early 1930s for being too nationalist. He joined various anti-Japanese [[Guerrilla warfare|guerrilla]] groups in northern China. Feelings against the Japanese ran high in Manchuria, but as of May 1930 the Japanese had not yet occupied Manchuria. On 30 May 1930, a spontaneous violent uprising in eastern Manchuria arose in which peasants attacked some local villages in the name of resisting "Japanese aggression".<ref>Kim Il-Sung, "Let Us Repudiate the 'Left' Adventurist Line and Follow the Revolutionary Organizational Line" contained in ''On Juche in Our Revolution'' (Foreign Languages Publishers: Pyongyang, Korea, 1973) 3.</ref> The authorities easily suppressed this impromptu uprising. Because of the attack, the Japanese began to plan an occupation of Manchuria.<ref>{{cite book|last=Yamamuro |first=Shin'ichi |date=2006 |title=Manchuria Under Japanese Dominion |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Jx0BAAAQBAJ&q=may%2030%201930%20manchuria%20uprising&pg=PA24 |access-date=8 February 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160518062413/https://books.google.com/books?id=7Jx0BAAAQBAJ&lpg=PA24&ots=YiKIyIWckn&dq=may%2030%201930%20manchuria%20uprising&pg=PA24 |archive-date=18 May 2016 |isbn=978-0812239126 }}</ref> In a speech Kim allegedly made before a meeting of Young Communist League delegates on 20 May 1931 in Yenchi County in Manchuria,<ref>{{cite book|last=Suh|first=Dae-Sook|title=Korean Communism, 1945β1980: A Reference Guide to the Political System|year=1981|location=Honolulu|publisher=The University Press of Hawaii|isbn=978-0-8248-0740-5|pages=9, 19}}</ref> he warned the delegates against such unplanned uprisings as the 30 May 1930 uprising in eastern Manchuria.<ref>Kim Il-Sung, "Let Us Repudiate the 'Left' Adventurist Line and Follow the Revolutionary Organizational Line" contained in ''On Juche in Our Revolution'', pp. 1β15.</ref> Four months later, on 18 September 1931, the "[[Mukden Incident]]" occurred, in which a relatively weak dynamite explosive charge went off near a Japanese railroad in the town of Mukden in Manchuria. Although no damage occurred, the Japanese used the incident as an excuse to send armed forces into Manchuria and to appoint a [[Manchukuo|puppet government]].<ref>Kim Il-Sung, "On Waging Armed Struggle Against Japanese Imperialism" on 16 December 1931 contained in ''On Juche in Our Revolution'', pp. 17β20.</ref> In 1935, Kim became a member of the [[Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army]], a guerrilla group led by the CCP.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/009770049402000302 | doi=10.1177/009770049402000302 | title=Northeast China and the Origins of the Anti-Japanese United Front | journal=Modern China | date=July 1994 | volume=20 | issue=3 | pages=282β314 | last1=Coogan | first1=Anthony | s2cid=145225647 }}</ref> Kim was appointed the same year to serve as political commissar for the 3rd detachment of the second division, consisting of around 160 soldiers.<ref name="Lankov"/>{{rp|53}} Here Kim met the man who would become his mentor as a communist, Wei Zhengmin, Kim's immediate superior officer, who served 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 8 March 1941.<ref name=Suh1988/>{{rp|8β10}} Kim's actions during the [[Minsaengdan incident]] helped solidify his leadership.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Kim |first=Suzy |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/950929415 |title=Everyday life in the North Korean revolution, 1945β1950 |date=2016 |isbn=978-1-5017-0568-7 |location=Ithaca |oclc=950929415}}</ref> The CCP operating in Manchuria had become suspicious that any Korean could secretly be a member of the pro-Japanese and anti-communist Minsaengdan.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Armstrong |first=Charles K. |title=The North Korean Revolution: 1945β1950 |date=2013 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0801468797 |pages=30}}</ref> A purge resulted: over 1,000 Koreans were expelled from the CCP, including Kim (who was arrested in late 1933 and exonerated in early 1934), and 500 were killed.<ref name=":2" /> Kim Il Sung's memoirs{{snd}}and those of the guerrillas who fought alongside him{{snd}}cite Kim's seizing and burning the suspect files of the Purge Committee as key to solidifying his leadership.<ref name=":1" /> After the destruction of the suspect files and the rehabilitation of suspects, those who had fled the purge rallied around Kim.<ref name=":1" /> As historian Suzy Kim summarizes, Kim Il Sung "emerged from the purge as a definitive leader, not only for the bold move but also for his compassion."<ref name=":1" /> In 1935, Kim took the name ''Kim Il Sung'', meaning "Kim become the sun".<ref name="Martin2004">{{cite book|title= Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty|author= Bradley K. Martin|publisher= Thomas Dunne Books|year= 2004|isbn= 978-0-312-32322-6}}</ref>{{rp|30}} 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". On June 4, 1937, he led 200 guerrillas in a [[Battle of Pochonbo|raid on Poch'onbo]], destroying the local government offices and setting fire to a Japanese police station and post office.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Kim |first=Suzy |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/950929415 |title=Everyday life in the North Korean revolution, 1945β1950 |date=2016 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-0568-7 |location=Ithaca |page=68 |oclc=950929415}}</ref> The success of the raid demonstrated Kim's talents as a military leader.<ref name=":0" /> Even more significant than the military success itself was the political coordination and organization between the guerrillas and the Korean Fatherland Restoration Association, an anti-Japanese united front group based in Manchuria.<ref name=":0" /> These accomplishments would grant Kim some measure of fame among Chinese guerrillas, and North Korean biographies would later exploit it as a great victory for Korea. For their part, the Japanese regarded Kim as one of the most effective and popular Korean guerrilla leaders ever.<ref name="Cumings">{{cite book |last=Cumings |first=Bruce |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yKN_q-TqYYgC&pg=160-161 |title=Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History (Updated) |date=2005 |publisher=W W Norton & Co |isbn=978-0-393-32702-1 |location=New York |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160518130003/https://books.google.com/books?id=yKN_q-TqYYgC&pg=160-161 |archive-date=18 May 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|160β161}}<ref>{{cite book | title = Korea's Twentieth-Century Odyssey | url = https://archive.org/details/koreastwentieth00robi/page/87 | url-access = registration | last = Robinson | first = Michael E | year = 2007 | publisher = University of Hawaii Press | location = Honolulu | isbn = 978-0-8248-3174-5 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/koreastwentieth00robi/page/87 87, 155] }}</ref> He appeared on Japanese wanted lists as the "Tiger".<ref name="McCormack 1993">{{cite book | title = Korea since 1850 | last1 = Lone | first1 = Stewart| last2 = McCormack | first2 = Gavan | author-link2 = Gavan McCormack | publisher = Longman Cheshire | location = Melbourne | year = 1993 | page=100 }}</ref> The Japanese "Maeda Unit" was sent to hunt him in February 1940.<ref name="McCormack 1993" /> Later in 1940, the Japanese kidnapped a woman named Kim Hye-sun, believed to have been Kim Il Sung's first wife. After using her as a hostage to try to convince the Korean guerrillas to surrender, she was killed. 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, in late 1940, Kim and a dozen of his fighters escaped by crossing the [[Amur River]] into the Soviet Union.<ref name="Lankov" />{{rp|53β54}} Kim was sent to a camp at [[Vyatskoye, Khabarovsk Krai|Vyatskoye]] near [[Khabarovsk]], where the Soviets retrained the Korean communist guerrillas. In August 1942, Kim and his army were assigned to a special unit known as the [[88th Separate Rifle Brigade]], which belonged to the [[Soviet Red Army]]. Kim's immediate superior was [[Zhou Baozhong]].<ref>{{cite web|language=zh-hant|url=http://dangshi.people.com.cn/BIG5/16700257.html|date=23 December 2011|access-date=1 June 2019|script-title=zh:ιζ₯ζηΆεθε¨δΏδΈηΆε₯³ηε ©δ»£εθͺΌ|website=people.com.cn|author=ε―ΈιΊι¦|archive-date=1 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190601054229/http://dangshi.people.com.cn/BIG5/16700257.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nknews.org/2019/02/how-an-obscure-red-army-unit-became-the-cradle-of-the-north-korean-elite/|date=4 February 2019|access-date=1 June 2019|title=How an obscure Red Army unit became the cradle of the North Korean elite|publisher=[[NK News]]|author=Fyodor Tertitskiy|archive-date=1 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190601060126/https://www.nknews.org/2019/02/how-an-obscure-red-army-unit-became-the-cradle-of-the-north-korean-elite/|url-status=live}}</ref> Kim became a Major in the Soviet Red Army<ref name="Suh1988" />{{rp|50}} and served in it until the end of [[World War II]] in 1945.<ref>{{cite book | last=Buzo | first=Adrian | title=The Making of Modern Korea | edition=3rd | location=London | publisher=Routledge | year=2016 | isbn=978-1-317-42278-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lDolDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA270 | page=270 | access-date=7 November 2021 | archive-date=14 October 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221014020445/https://books.google.com/books?id=lDolDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA270 | url-status=live }}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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