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! == Leader of North Korea == === Early years === [[File:Kim Il-sung official photograph, 1 October 1948.jpg|thumb|Kim's official portrait in 1948]] Despite the [[United Nations]]' plans to conduct nationwide elections in Korea, on 15 August 1948, the [[United States Army Military Government in Korea|US-occupied south]] proclaimed the [[First Republic of Korea|Republic of Korea]], which claimed sovereignty over all of Korea. In response, the Soviets held elections of their own in [[Soviet Civil Administration|their northern occupation zone]] on [[1948 North Korean parliamentary election|25 August 1948]] for a [[Supreme People's Assembly]].<ref>{{cite book | last=Malkasian | first=Carter | title=The Korean War 1950–1953 | location=Chicago | publisher=Fitzroy Dearborn | year=2001 | isbn=978-1-57958-364-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZGoA65bSFpQC&pg=PA13 | page=13}}</ref> Voters were presented with a single list from the Communist-dominated [[Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland]].{{citation needed|date=June 2019}} The [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea]] was proclaimed on 9 September 1948, with Kim as the Soviet-designated premier. On 12 October, the Soviet Union recognized Kim's government as the sovereign government of the entire peninsula, including the south.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ncnk.org/resources/briefing-papers/all-briefing-papers/dprk-diplomatic-relations|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140419051757/http://www.ncnk.org/resources/briefing-papers/all-briefing-papers/dprk-diplomatic-relations|url-status=dead|title=DPRK Diplomatic Relations|date=11 April 2017|archive-date=19 April 2014|website=NCNK}}</ref> The Communist Party merged with the New People's Party of Korea to form the Workers' Party of North Korea, with Kim as vice-chairman. In 1949, the Workers' Party of North Korea merged with its [[Workers' Party of South Korea|southern counterpart]] to become the [[Workers' Party of Korea]] (WPK) with Kim as [[Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea|party chairman]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://world.kbs.co.kr/english/event/nkorea_nuclear/general_03c.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080305052724/http://world.kbs.co.kr/english/event/nkorea_nuclear/general_03c.htm|url-status=dead|title=North Korea A to Z|publisher=KBS World|archive-date=5 March 2008}}</ref> By 1949, Kim and the communists had consolidated their rule in North Korea.<ref name=Rogue/>{{rp|53}} Around this time, Kim began promoting an intense [[Kim Il-sung's cult of personality|personality cult]]. The first of many statues of him appeared, and he began calling himself "Great Leader".<ref name=Rogue/>{{rp|53}} In February 1946, Kim Il Sung decided to introduce a number of reforms. Over 50% of the [[arable land]] was redistributed, an 8-hour work day was proclaimed and all [[heavy industry]] was to be [[nationalized]].<ref name=Suh1988/>{{rp|68}} There were improvements in the health of the population after he [[Nationalized health care|nationalized healthcare]] and made it available to all citizens.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1FaXAgAAQBAJ&q=kim+il+sung+health+care&pg=PA104|title=Kim Jong Il's North Korea|isbn=9781467703550|last1=Behnke|first1=Alison|date=1 August 2012|publisher=Twenty-First Century Books |access-date=18 October 2020|archive-date=14 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221014020448/https://books.google.com/books?id=1FaXAgAAQBAJ&q=kim+il+sung+health+care&pg=PA104|url-status=live}}</ref> === Korean War === {{main|Korean War}} [[File:Kim Il-sung signed for Korean Armistice Agreement.jpg|thumb|right|Kim signs the [[Korean Armistice Agreement]]]] Archival material suggests<ref name="weathersby432">Weathersby, Kathryn, "The Soviet Role in the Early Phase of the Korean War", ''The Journal of American-East Asian Relations'' 2, no. 4 (Winter 1993): 432</ref><ref name="goncharov">Goncharov, Sergei N., Lewis, John W. and Xue Litai, ''Uncertain Partners: Stalin, Mao, and the Korean War'' (1993)</ref><ref name="mansourov94107">Mansourov, Aleksandr Y., ''Stalin, Mao, Kim, and China's Decision to Enter the Korean War, 16 September – 15 October 1950: New Evidence from the Russian Archives'', Cold War International History Project Bulletin, Issues 6–7 (Winter 1995/1996): 94–107</ref> that North Korea's decision to invade South Korea was Kim's initiative, not a Soviet one. Evidence suggests that [[Soviet intelligence]], through its espionage sources in the US government and British [[Secret Intelligence Service|SIS]], had obtained information on the limitations of US atomic bomb stockpiles as well as defense program cuts, leading Stalin to conclude that the [[Harry S. Truman|Truman]] administration would not intervene in Korea.<ref>Sudoplatov, Pavel Anatoli, Schecter, Jerrold L., and Schecter, Leona P., ''Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness—A Soviet Spymaster'', Little Brown, Boston (1994)</ref> [[China]] acquiesced only reluctantly to the idea of Korean reunification after being told by Kim that Stalin had approved the action.<ref name="weathersby432" /><ref name="goncharov" /><ref name="mansourov94107" /> The Chinese did not provide North Korea with direct military support (other than logistics channels) until United Nations troops, largely US forces, had nearly reached the [[Yalu River]] late in 1950. At the outset of the war in June and July, North Korean forces captured [[Seoul]] and occupied most of the South, save for a small section of territory in the southeast region of the South that was called the [[Battle of Pusan Perimeter|Pusan Perimeter]]. But in September, the North Koreans were driven back by the US-led counterattack that started with the UN landing in [[Incheon]], followed by a combined South Korean-US-UN offensive from the Pusan Perimeter. By October, UN forces had retaken Seoul and invaded the North to reunify the country under the South. On 19 October, US and South Korean troops captured P'yŏngyang, forcing Kim and his government to flee north, first to [[Sinuiju]] and eventually into [[Kanggye]].<ref name=mossman>{{cite book |last=Mossman |first=Billy |date=29 June 2005 |title=United States Army in the Korean War: Ebb and Flow November 1950 – July 1951|publisher=University Press of the Pacific |page=51}}</ref><ref name=sandler>{{cite book |last=Sandler |first=Stanley |date=1999 |title=The Korean War: No Victors, No Vanquished |url=https://archive.org/details/koreanwarnovicto0000sand |url-access=registration |publisher=The University Press of Kentucky |page=[https://archive.org/details/koreanwarnovicto0000sand/page/108 108]}}</ref> On 25 October 1950, after sending various warnings of their intent to intervene if UN forces did not halt their advance,<ref name="Halberstam 2007">David Halberstam. Halberstam, David (25 September 2007). The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War. Hyperion. Kindle Edition.</ref>{{rp|23}} Chinese troops in the thousands crossed the Yalu River and entered the war as allies of the KPA. There were nevertheless tensions between Kim and the Chinese government. Kim had been warned of the likelihood of an amphibious landing at Incheon, which was ignored. There was also a sense that the North Koreans had paid little in war compared to the Chinese who had fought for their country for decades against foes with better technology.<ref name="Halberstam 2007"/>{{rp|335–336}} The UN troops were forced to withdraw and Chinese troops retook P'yŏngyang in December and Seoul in January 1951. In March, UN forces began a new offensive, retaking Seoul and advanced north once again halting at a point just north of the [[38th parallel north|38th Parallel]]. After a series of offensives and counter-offensives by both sides, followed by a grueling period of largely static [[trench warfare]] that lasted from the summer of 1951 to July 1953, the front was stabilized along what eventually became the permanent "[[Military Demarcation Line|Armistice Line]]" of 27 July 1953. Over 2.5 million people died during the Korean War.<ref>Bethany Lacina and Nils Petter Gleditsch, [http://www.eui.eu/Documents/DepartmentsCentres/SPS/Seminars/SeminarsF09/PVSEMF08/LacinaGleditschMonitoringTrendsInGlobalCombatEJP2005.pdf Monitoring Trends in Global Combat: A New Dataset of Battle Deaths] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012043824/http://www.eui.eu/Documents/DepartmentsCentres/SPS/Seminars/SeminarsF09/PVSEMF08/LacinaGleditschMonitoringTrendsInGlobalCombatEJP2005.pdf |date=12 October 2013 }}, European Journal of Population (2005) 21: 145–166.</ref> Chinese and Russian documents from that time reveal that Kim became increasingly desperate to establish a truce, since the likelihood that further fighting would successfully unify Korea under his rule became more remote with the UN and US presence. Kim also resented the Chinese taking over the majority of the fighting in his country, with Chinese forces stationed at the center of the front line, and the Korean People's Army being mostly restricted to the coastal flanks of the front.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://teachingamericanhistory.org/static/neh/interactives/timeline/data/102550.html|title=25 October 1950|website=teachingamericanhistory.org|access-date=31 March 2019|archive-date=16 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180916090341/http://teachingamericanhistory.org/static/neh/interactives/timeline/data/102550.html|url-status=live}}</ref> === Consolidating power === [[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-38870-0003, Berlin, Otto Nagel, Otto Grotewohl, Kim Ir Sen.jpg|thumb|right|Kim on a 1956 visit to East Germany, chatting with painter [[Otto Nagel]] and Prime Minister [[Otto Grotewohl]]]] With the end of the Korean War, despite the failure to unify Korea under his rule, Kim Il Sung proclaimed the war a victory in the sense that he had remained in power in the north. However, the three-year war left North Korea devastated, and Kim immediately embarked on a large reconstruction effort. He launched a five-year national economic plan (akin to [[Five-year plans of the Soviet Union|Soviet Union's five-year plans]]) to establish a [[command economy]], with all industry owned by the state and all agriculture [[Collective farming|collectivized]]. The economy was focused on heavy industry and arms production. By the 1960s, North Korea enjoyed a standard of living higher than the South, which was [[First Republic of Korea|fraught with political instability and economic crises]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Making of Modern Korea|last=Buzo|first=Adrian|publisher=Routledge|year=2002|isbn=978-0-415-23749-9|location=London|page=140}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History|last=Cumings|first=Bruce|publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]]|year=2005|isbn=978-0-393-32702-1|location=New York|page=434|author-link=Bruce Cumings}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/koreastwentieth00robi|title=Korea's Twentieth-Century Odyssey|last=Robinson|first=Michael E|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0-8248-3174-5|location=Honolulu|page=[https://archive.org/details/koreastwentieth00robi/page/153 153]|url-access=registration}}</ref> In the ensuing years, Kim established himself as an independent leader of [[World communism|international communism]]. In 1956, he joined Mao in the "[[Anti-revisionism|anti-revisionist]]" camp, which did not accept [[Nikita Khrushchev]]'s program of [[de-Stalinization]], yet he did not become a [[Maoism|Maoist]] himself. At the same time, he consolidated his power over the [[Communism in Korea|Korean communist movement]]. Rival leaders were eliminated. [[Pak Hon-yong]], leader of the Korean Communist Party, was purged and executed in 1955. [[Choe Chang-ik]] appears to have been purged as well.<ref name="crisis">Lankov, Andrei N., ''Crisis in North Korea: The Failure of De-Stalinization, 1956'', Honolulu: Hawaii University Press (2004), {{ISBN|978-0-8248-2809-7}}</ref><ref>Timothy Hildebrandt, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/asia_rpt115b.pdf "Uneasy Allies: Fifty Years of China-North Korea Relations"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150224234236/http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/asia_rpt115b.pdf |date=24 February 2015 }}, ''Asia Program Special Report'', September 2003, Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars.</ref> Yi Sang-Cho, North Korea's ambassador to the Soviet Union and a critic of Kim who defected to the Soviet Union in 1956, was declared a factionalist and a traitor.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lankov |first1=Andrei |last2=Selivanov |first2=Igor |date=22 October 2018 |title=A peculiar case of a runaway ambassador: Yi Sang-Cho's defection and the 1956 crisis in North Korea |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14682745.2018.1507022 |journal=[[Cold War History (journal)|Cold War History]] |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=233–251 |doi=10.1080/14682745.2018.1507022 |s2cid=158492110 |access-date=18 February 2023}}</ref> The 1955 [[Juche speech|''Juche'' speech]], which stressed Korean independence, debuted in the context of Kim's power struggle against leaders such as Pak, who had Soviet backing. This was little noticed at the time until state media started talking about it in 1963.<ref name=Chung>Chung, Chin O. Pyongyang Between Peking and Moscow: North Korea's Involvement in the Sino-Soviet Dispute, 1958–1975. University of Alabama. 1978.</ref><ref name=French>{{cite book|last=French|first=Paul|title=North Korea: State of Paranoia|location=New York|publisher=St. Martin's Press|year=2014}}</ref> Kim developed the policy and ideology of ''[[Juche]]'' in opposition to the idea of North Korea as a [[satellite state]] of China or the Soviet Union. Kim transformed North Korea into what Wonjun Song and Joseph Wright consider a personalist dictatorship, where power was centralized in Kim personally.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Song |first1=Wonjun |last2=Wright |first2=Joseph |title=The North Korean Autocracy in Comparative Perspective |journal=Journal of East Asian Studies |date=July 2018 |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=157–180 |doi=10.1017/jea.2018.8 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|s2cid=158818385 |doi-access=free }}</ref> [[Kim Il-sung's cult of personality|Kim Il Sung's cult of personality]] had initially been criticized by some members of the government. The North Korean ambassador to the USSR, [[Lee Sang-jo|Li Sangjo]], a member of the [[Yan'an faction]], reported that it had become a criminal offense to so much as write on Kim's picture in a newspaper and that he had been elevated to the status of [[Karl Marx|Marx]], [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]], [[Mao Zedong|Mao]], and [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] in the communist pantheon. He also charged Kim with rewriting history so it would appear as if his guerrilla faction had single-handedly liberated Korea from the Japanese, completely ignoring the assistance of the [[Chinese People's Volunteers]]. In addition, Li stated that in the process of agricultural collectivization, grain was being forcibly confiscated from the peasants, leading to "at least 300 suicides" and he also stated that Kim made nearly all major policy decisions and appointments himself. Li reported that over 30,000 people were in prison for completely unjust and arbitrary reasons which were as trivial as not printing Kim Il Sung's portrait on sufficient quality paper or using newspapers with his picture to wrap parcels. Grain confiscation and tax collection were also conducted with force, which consisted of violence, beatings, and threats of imprisonment.<ref>{{cite web|last=Ri|first=Sang-jo|title=Letter from Ri Sang-jo to the Central Committee of the Korean Workers Party|url=https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/114152|publisher=Woodrow Wilson Center|access-date=5 March 2014|archive-date=5 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140305210033/http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/114152|url-status=live}}</ref> During the 1956 [[August Faction Incident]], Kim Il Sung successfully resisted Soviet and Chinese efforts to depose him in favor of pro-Soviet Koreans or Koreans who belonged to the pro-Chinese Yan'an faction.<ref name=Sino-SovietSplit>Chung, Chin O. ''Pyongyang Between Peking and Moscow: North Korea's Involvement in the Sino-Soviet Dispute, 1958–1975''. University of Alabama, 1978, p. 45.</ref><ref name=NKMajorPowers>{{cite journal|jstor=2643582|author1=Kim Young Kun|last2=Zagoria|first2=Donald S.|title=North Korea and the Major Powers|journal=Asian Survey|volume=15|number=12|date=December 1975|pages=1017–1035|doi=10.2307/2643582}}</ref> The last Chinese troops withdrew from the country in October 1958, which is the consensus as the latest date when North Korea became effectively independent, though some scholars believe that the 1956 August incident demonstrated North Korea's independence.<ref name=Sino-SovietSplit /><ref name=NKMajorPowers /> During his rise and consolidation of power, Kim created the ''[[songbun]]'' [[caste]] system, which divided the North Korean people into three groups. Each person was classified as belonging to the "core", "wavering", or "hostile" class, based on his or her political, social, and economic background – a system which persists today.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}} Songbun was used to decide all aspects of a person's existence in North Korean society, including access to education, housing, employment, food rationing, ability to join the ruling party, and even where a person was allowed to live. Large numbers of people from the so-called hostile class, which included intellectuals, land owners, and former supporters of Japan's occupying government during World War II, were forcibly relocated to the country's isolated and impoverished northern provinces. When years of famine ravaged the country in the 1990s, those people who lived in its marginalized and remote communities were hardest hit.<ref name=Kim-IlSungLegacy>[https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/04/13/north-korea-kim-il-sungs-catastrophic-rights-legacy North Korea: Kim Il-Sung's Catastrophic Rights Legacy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190421002357/https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/04/13/north-korea-kim-il-sungs-catastrophic-rights-legacy |date=21 April 2019 }} 13 April 2016. [[Human Rights Watch]], 2016.</ref> During his rule, North Korea was responsible for widespread [[Human rights in North Korea|human rights abuses]].<ref>{{cite book|title=[[Black Book of Communism]]|page=564}}</ref><ref>[http://www.freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/Worst%20of%20the%20Worst%202012%20final%20report.pdf The Worst of the Worst: The World's Most Repressive Societies] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130607174811/http://www.freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/Worst%20of%20the%20Worst%202012%20final%20report.pdf|date=7 June 2013}}. [[Freedom House]], 2012.</ref><ref>[https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP10.HTM Statistics of democide – Chapter 10 – Statistics Of North Korean Democide – Estimates, Calculations, And Sources] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180911200456/http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP10.HTM |date=11 September 2018 }} by [[Rudolph Rummel]].</ref> Kim Il Sung punished real and perceived dissent through [[purge]]s which included [[public execution]]s and [[enforced disappearances]]. Not only dissenters but their entire extended families were reduced to the lowest songbun rank, and many of them were relocated to a secret system of political prison camps. These camps or ''[[Kwalliso|kwanliso]]'', a part of Kim's vast network of abusive [[Prisons in North Korea|penal and forced labor institutions]], were fenced and heavily guarded colonies in mountainous areas of the country, where prisoners were forced to perform back-breaking labor such as logging, mining, and picking crops. Most prisoners were held in these camps for life, and their living and working conditions in them were often deadly. For example, prisoners were nearly starved to death, denied medical care, denied proper housing and clothes, subjected to sexual violence, regularly mistreated, [[torture]]d and executed by guards.<ref name=Kim-IlSungLegacy /> === 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> === Death === {{Main|Death and state funeral of Kim Il Sung}} {{external media|video1=[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYgs2SY7i80 KCTV: Kim Il Sung Funeral July 8, 1994 – Full Video]|width=210px|float=right}} On the late morning shortly before 12:00 noon on 7 July 1994, Kim Il Sung collapsed from a sudden [[Myocardial infarction|heart attack]] at his residence in [[Hyangsan County|Hyangsan]], [[North Pyongan Province|North Pyongan]]. After the heart attack, Kim Jong Il ordered the team of doctors who were constantly at his father's side to leave and arranged for the country's best doctors to be flown in from Pyongyang. After several hours, the doctors from Pyongyang arrived, but despite their efforts to save him, Kim Il Sung died at 02:00 [[Pyongyang Standard Time|PST]] on 8 July 1994, aged 82.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Reid |first=T. R. |date=1994-07-09 |title=NORTH KOREAN PRESIDENT KIM IL SUNG DIES AT 82 |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/07/09/north-korean-president-kim-il-sung-dies-at-82/b884e1c5-65f7-4c4d-841b-c3137610896a/ |access-date=2023-08-08 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref> After the traditional [[Confucianism|Confucian]] mourning period, his death was declared 34 hours later.<ref>[[Barbara Demick|Demick, Barbara]]: ''Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea''. p. 92</ref> Kim Il Sung's death resulted in nationwide mourning and a ten-day mourning period was declared by Kim Jong Il. His funeral was scheduled to be held on 17 July 1994 in Pyongyang but was delayed until 19 July.<ref>{{cite news |title=North Korea postpones Kim's funeral |url=https://www.straitstimes.com/multimedia/graphics/assets/images/ST175/NewspaperSG/1994-07-17/full.jpg |work=The Straits Times |date=17 July 1994 |access-date=14 March 2022 |archive-date=14 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221014020444/https://www.straitstimes.com/multimedia/graphics/assets/images/ST175/NewspaperSG/1994-07-17/full.jpg |url-status=live }}</ref> It was attended by hundreds of thousands of people who were flown into the city from all over North Korea. Kim Il Sung's body was placed in a public [[mausoleum]] at the [[Kumsusan Palace of the Sun]], where his preserved and embalmed body lies under a glass coffin for viewing purposes. His head rests on a traditional Korean pillow and he is covered by the flag of the Workers' Party of Korea. Newsreel video of the funeral at Pyongyang was broadcast on several networks and can now be found on various websites.<ref>{{YouTube|5zYsUqAYg6c|''Scenes of lamentation after Kim Il-sung's death''}}</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