Background

According to an official biography, Kim Jong-il was born on February 16, 1942, in a secret military camp on Paektu Mountain, North Korea. However, other sources stated that Kim Jong-il was born in 1941 in either the camp of Vyatskoye, near Khabarovsk or camp Voroshilov near Nikolsk in Russia. Besides, his birth was believed to be supernatural as a double rainbow appeared, a new star emerged in the sky, and the season changed from winter to spring when he was born. Kim Jong-il was a son of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-suk. His childhood name was Yura (a Russian name). He also had younger brother Kim Man-il and a sister Kim Kyong-hui.

Education

Kim Jong-iI attended Primary School No. 4. He also studied at Namsan Senior High School from 1954 to 1960. In 1960 he went to Kim Il-Sung University, majoring in Marxist political economy with philosophy and military science as minor subjects. Kim is also said to have received English language education in Malta in the early 1970s.

Career

In 1964 Kim Jong-il began his career in the Workers' Party of Korea Secretariat Organization and Guidance Department under the tutelage of his father and his uncle Kim Yong-ju, who was then in charge of the office. He rapidly climbed up the ladder of party hierarchy. In 1970 Kim Jong-il became director of the Culture and Art Department of the Workers' Party of Korea Secretariat. In that capacity, he was credited with having directed the production of five major operas, including The Flower Selling Maiden and The Song of Paradise. By 1973 Kim Jong-il launched Three-Revolution Team Movement where people were trained by political, technical and scientific technicians, and took steps to facilitate economic planning. Soon he was given the title Dear Leader and was often referred to as fearless leader. In 1974 he was appointed head of the Organization and Guidance Department and held this post until 1993.

During the Sixth Party Congress in 1980, he was appointed to senior positions in the Military Commission, the Politburo, and the Secretariat, thus holding control over all sectors of government. He was assigned the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army in 1991, despite having no military experience. He also served as first vice chairman of the National Defence Commission from 1990 to 1993. He was made the Chairman of the National Defense Commission in 1993. Kim Jong-il also was credited with having authored a number of "immortal classics." In 1982 he published On the Juche Idea to mark his father's 70th birthday. He also wrote such books as On the Art of the Cinema, On the Art of Opera and Socialism is a Science.

Kim Jong-il was to have ascended to the North Korean Presidency after the death of his father, Kim Il-sung, on July 8, 1994. This would have marked the first hereditary transfer of power in a Marxist, communist state. Two months after his father's death, Kim Jong-il still had not been announced as the head of state and had not been seen in public. Rumored reasons for this included a struggle for political control and the observance of a mourning period by Kim. However in 1994 he became director of the Organization and Guidance Department. In 1997 Kim Jong-il was appointed Chairman of Workers' Party of Korea Central Military Commission and General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea. In 1998, he was re-elected as chairman of the National Defence Commission and a constitutional amendment declared that post to be "the highest post of the state" and most sources outside North Korea reckoned Kim as North Korea's head of state from that date. Also in 1998, the Supreme People's Assembly wrote the president's post out of the constitution and designated Kim Il-sung as the country's "Eternal President" in order to honor his memory forever.

Officially, Kim was part of a triumvirate heading the executive branch of the North Korean government along with Premier Choe Yong-rim and parliament chairman Kim Yong-nam. However, in practice Kim Jong-il exercised absolute control over the government and the country. Although not required to stand for popular election to his key offices, he was unanimously elected to the Supreme People's Assembly every five years, representing a military constituency, due to his concurrent capacities as supreme commander of the Korean People's Army and chairman of the National Defence Commission. On April 9, 2009, Kim was re-elected as chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission and made an appearance at the Supreme People's Assembly. This was the first time Kim was seen in public since August 2008. He was unanimously re-elected and given a standing ovation. On September 28, 2010, Kim was re-elected as General secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea. On December 17, 2011, Kim Jong-il died on a train during a domestic trip outside Pyongyang, due to a heart attack.

Achievements

• Kim Jong-il was a North Korean politician who was known as the supreme ruler of North Korea for 17 years, from 1994 to 2011. He also was the General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, Chairman of the National Defence Commission and the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army. Kim Jong-il strengthened the role of military by his "Military-First" policy and made the military of his country the fourth largest standing army in the world.
  
  Kim Jong-il was often referred to as Great Comrade, Supreme Commander and even Father after taking power. After his death, he was designated the "Eternal General Secretary" of the Workers' Party of Korea and the "Eternal Chairman of the National Defence Commission." He received the medal of a Hero of the Korean People's Republic four times and also was awarded the Order of Kim Il-sung three times. Kim Jong-il also received the Order of the National Flag, the Jubilee Medal "50 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945," the Jubilee Medal "60 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" and the Jubilee Medal "65 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945."

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Cinema and Directing

    (After carefully considering the position and importance o...)

    1987
  • On the Art of Opera

    (On the Art of Opera is a transcript of a speech that Kim ...)

    1974
  • On the Juche Idea of Our Party

    (On the Juche Idea is one of Kim Jong-il's major writings ...)

    1982
  • On the Art of the Cinema

    (On the Art of the Cinema is a 1973 treatise by the North ...)

    1973
  • Socialism is a Science

    (English edition)

    1994

Politics

Kim Jong-il was active in the Korean Children's Union and the Democratic Youth League of North Korea. He also took part in study groups of Marxist political theory. In 1957, he became vice-chairman of his middle school's Democratic Youth League branch and pursued a program of anti-factionalism and attempted to encourage greater ideological education among his classmates. In 1964 Kim Jong-il entered the Workers' Party of Korea. He rose to different ranks, becoming a member of the Workers' Party Central Committee. He organized and directed the Three Revolutions Team Movement. His portraits appeared in public buildings and schools, together with his father's. He also initiated a series of "on-the-spot guidance" tours, a technique his father had used frequently as a means of control and inspection.

The economic stagnation that arose during his father's reign devastated the country and led to a severe famine, resulting in mass starvation and despair. That is why when Kim Jong-il became Chairman of the National Defense Commission in 1993 he started the "Military-First" policy, where the military was provided with national resources to keep it under his control and fight both domestic and foreign threats. This has resulted in a positive growth rate for the country since 1996, with the implementation of "landmark socialist-type market economic practices" in 2002.

After becoming North Korea's leader, and with his country facing a struggling economy and a famine, Kim made moves toward amending North Korea's long-standing policy of isolationism. Throughout the late 1990s and early 21st century, Kim sought to improve ties with a number of countries. In 1994 he signed the Agreed Framework with the United States to dismantle all nuclear weapons programs in exchange for receiving fuel oil and assistance in developing two power-generating nuclear reactors. However, in 2002, Kim Jong-il's government admitted to having produced nuclear weapons since the 1994 agreement. Kim's regime argued the secret production was necessary for security purposes – citing the presence of United States-owned nuclear weapons in South Korea and new tensions with the United States under President George W. Bush. On 9 October 2006, North Korea's Korean Central News Agency announced that it had successfully conducted an underground nuclear test.

Kim Jong-il was known for following the rights infringement policy and maintaining kwalliso, or Gulag-like political prison camps, where over 200,000 prisoners are still captured and exposed to torture, near-starvation rations, executions, and forced labor. Besides, Kim's government was accused of "crimes against humanity" for its alleged culpability in creating and prolonging famine in the 1990s.

Views

Quotations: "Nothing is impossible for a man with a strong will. The possible is in-store only for a man who loves the future. There is no word "impossible" in the Korean language."

"We oppose the reactionary policies of the U.S. government but we do not oppose the American people. We want to have many good friends in the United States."

"Karl Marx made a great contribution to the liberation cause of mankind, and because of his immortal exploits his name is still enshrined in the hearts of the working class and peoples of all countries."

"Independence is an attribute of a man, the social being; it should not be viewed as the development to the perfection of a natural, biological attribute of living matter. This is, in essence, an evolutionary viewpoint. Of course, we do not deny evolutionism itself. Science has long established the fact that a man is a product of ages of evolution. A man is a product of evolution, but not his independence. Independence is a social product. Independence is an attribute given to man by society, not nature; it is not a natural gift, but has been formed and developed socially and historically."

"It is my greatest wish to enable our people to live with nothing to envy at the earliest possible date, and it is my greatest pleasure to work energetically, sharing my joys and sorrows with our people, on the road of translating my wish into reality."

"The physical life of an individual person is limited, but the life of the masses united as an independent social-political organism is immortal. Only when an individual becomes a member of this community can he acquire the immortal social-political life."

Personality

Kim Jong-il had a fear of flying and always traveled by private armored train during state visits to Russia and China. He also refused to consume any food or drink not produced in North Korea, with the exception of wine from France. His fashion sense became a global phenomenon, especially his bouffant hairstyle and four-inch platform shoes which he wore to increase his height.

Kim Jong-il was a huge film fan. There were 20,000 films in his collection which included James Bond, Friday the 13th, Rambo, Godzilla, and Hong Kong action cinema. Besides in 2006, he was involved in the production of the Juche-based movie The Schoolgirl's Diary. Kim Jong-il was also obsessed with Elvis Presley. His official biography also claims that Kim composed six operas and enjoyed staging elaborate musicals.

Kim was the focus of an elaborate personality cult inherited from his father and founder of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Kim Il-sung. In 1992, the song "No Motherland Without You" was created especially for Kim.

Quotes from others about the person

• Kim Duk Hong: "When it comes to the orchestration of terror, Kim Jong-il is a natural-born genius."

Interests

• Sport & Clubs

  Basketball

• Music & Bands

  Elvis Presley

Connections

There is no official information available about Kim Jong-il's marital history, but he is believed to have been officially married twice and to have had three mistresses. His first wife was Hong Il-chon. She was handpicked by his father and married to him in 1966. The marriage produced a daughter. In 1969, Kim Jong-il and Hong Il-chon divorced. Kim Jong-il's first mistress, Song Hye-rim, was an actress. She was already married to another man and with a child when they met in 1970. They had one son, Kim Jong-nam. However, Kim kept both the relationship and the child a secret until he ascended to power in 1994.

In 1974, Kim Jong-il married Kim Young-sook. The marriage produced a daughter. However, Kim Jong-il and Kim Young-sook were estranged for some years before Kim's death. Kim's second mistress, Ko Yong-hui, was a Japanese-born ethnic Korean and a dancer. They had two sons and a daughter. Ko Yong-hui had taken over the role of First Lady until her death in 2004. After that Kim Jong-il lived with Kim Ok, his third mistress. She had served as his personal secretary and performed the role of North Korea's First Lady. During their trip to China in January 2006, she was received by Chinese officials as Kim's wife.

Father:

Kim Il-sung

Kim Il-sung was the founder of North Korea, which he ruled from the country's establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994.

Mother:

Kim Jong-suk

Kim Jong-suk (December 24, 1917 – September 22, 1949) was a Korean anti-Japanese guerrilla and a Communist activist.

Brother:

Kim Man-il

Kim Man-il (1944 – 1947)

Sister:

Kim Kyong-hui

Kim Kyong-hui (born 30 May 1946) is the aunt of the current North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un. She currently serves as Secretary for Organization of the Workers' Party of Korea.

ex-wife:

Hong Il-chon

Hong Il-chon (born 1942) was a member of the Supreme People's Assembly during the period between 1977 and 1991. She also worked as principal of Kim Hyong Jik University of Education from 1991 to 2012.

Daughter:

Kim Hye-gyong

(born 1968)

Mistress:

Song Hye-rim

Song Hye-rim (24 January 1937 – 18 May 2002) was a North Korean actress.

Son:

Kim Jong-nam

Kim Jong-nam (10 May 1971 – 13 February 2017) was the eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. He also was the former heir apparent to his father. Kim Jong-nam was exiled from North Korea in 2003.

Wife:

Kim Young-sook

Kim Young-sook (born 1947) was First Lady of North Korea from 1994 to late 2011.

Daughter:

Kim Sol-song

Kim Sol-song (born 30 December 1974) is the daughter of North Korea's former leader Kim Jong-il. She has reportedly been active within the propaganda department. Previously she led the security and schedule of her father as his secretary.

Mistress:

Ko Yong-hui

Ko Yong-hui (26 June 1952 – 13 August 2004) was Kim Jong-il's consort and the mother of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un. In North Korea she is referred to by titles, such as "The Respected Mother who is the Most Faithful and Loyal 'Subject' to the Dear Leader Comrade Supreme Commander" and "The Mother of Pyongyang".

Son:

Kim Jong-chul

Kim Jong-chul (born 25 September 1981) served as deputy chief of the Leadership Division of the Workers' Party of Korea from 2007 to 2009. In 2009 he assumed a low-level position within the ruling Workers' Party.

Son:

Kim Jong-un

Kim Jong-un is a North Korean politician serving as Supreme Leader of North Korea since 2011.

Daughter:

Kim Yo-jong

Kim Yo-jong (born 26 September 1987) is a North Korean politician serving as the first vice director of the United Front Department of the Workers' Party of Korea.

Mistress:

Kim Ok

Kim Ok (born 28 August 1964) is a former North Korean government employee who served as Kim Jong-il's personal secretary from the 1980s until his death.

References

• Dear Reader: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Jong Il With nothing left uncovered, drawing straight from dozens of books, hundreds of articles and thousands of years of Korean history, Dear Reader is both the definitive account of Kim Jong Il's life and the complete stranger-than-fiction history of the world's most unique country.
  2014
• A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power A Kim Jong-Il Production is that rarest of books: a wildly entertaining, cunningly told story that offers a rare glimpse into a nation still wrapped in mystery.
  2015
• Kim Jong Il Looking at Things Comical and bizarre, Kim Jong Il Looking at Things is based upon one of the most followed, shared and imitated monothematic Tumblr blogs in recent years. Created by João Rocha, an art director at an advertising firm in Lisbon, the blog is a collection of photographs which depict the former "Dear Leader" of North Korea, often accompanied by military personnel or senior advisers, engaged in the act of looking at things.
  2012
• Kim Jong-Il: North Korea's Dear Leader Unraveling the myths, mysteries, and fallacies that surround this small, desperate country, this fascinating story includes rare photos of Kim Jong-il and his brutal regime.
  2004
• Kim Jong-il: The Controversial Life and Legacy of North Korea's Second Supreme Leader Kim Jong-il: The Controversial Life and Legacy of North Korea's Second Supreme Leader analyzes the known and unknown about Kim Jong-il. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, readers will learn about Kim Jong-il like never before.
  2004