Kim Jong Il (16 February 1941 – 17 December 2011) was a North Korean politician and dictator who was the second supreme leader of North Korea from the death of his father Kim Il Sung in 1994 until his own death in 2011. Posthumously, Kim Jong Il was declared an eternal leader of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).
Kim was born in the far eastern region of the Soviet Union and moved to Pyongyang in 1945 following the end of Japanese rule. He joined the WPK in 1961 and rose through its ranks, joining the Propaganda and Agitation Department (PAD) in 1966. He was responsible for investigations following the Kapsan faction incident in 1967, and played a key role in the development of the Juche ideology, North Korean cult of personality and the Monolithic Ideological System. He became PAD director in 1973, and took an increasingly prominent role. He was formally designated as Kim Il Sung's successor in 1980 at the 6th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea. Kim succeeded his father following his death in 1994. Kim was the General Secretary of the WPK, Member of WPK Presidium, Chairman of the WPK Central Military Commission, Chairman of the National Defence Commission (NDC) of North Korea and the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army (KPA), the fourth-largest standing army in the world.
Like his father, Kim ruled North Korea as a repressive and totalitarian dictatorship. Kim assumed leadership during a period of catastrophic economic crisis amidst the dissolution of the Soviet Union, on which it was heavily dependent for trade in food and other supplies, which brought a famine. While the famine had ended by the late 1990s, food scarcity continued to be a problem throughout his tenure. Kim strengthened the role of the military with his Songun ("military-first") policies, making the army the central organizer of civil society. Kim's rule also saw tentative economic reforms, including the opening of the Kaesong Industrial Region in 2003 as well as a failed currency reform in 2009. The relationship with South Korea initially improved due to the Sunshine Policy, culminating in Kim's meeting with South Korean president Kim Dae-jung in 2000, followed by a meeting with president Roh Moo-hyun in 2007. However, the relationship subsequently deteriorated in 2010 following the sinking of ROKS Cheonan and the bombardment of Yeonpyeong. Under his leadership, North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, becoming the world's ninth nuclear-armed state, followed by another nuclear test in 2009, leading to international sanctions against North Korea.
Following Kim's failure to appear at important public events in 2008, foreign observers assumed that Kim had either fallen seriously ill or died. After this point, Kim made efforts to promote his third son, Kim Jong Un as his successor, promoting him to high ranking posts in the WPK in 2010. On 19 December 2011, the North Korean government announced that he had died two days earlier. After his death, alongside "Eternal General Secretary" of the WPK, Kim Jong Il was declared "Eternal Chairman" of the National Defence Commission, in keeping with the tradition of establishing eternal posts for the dead members of the Kim family.
In literature, it is assumed that Kim was born in 1941 in either the camp of Vyatskoye, near Khabarovsk, or camp Voroshilov near Nikolsk. According to Lim Jae Cheon, Kim cannot have been born in Vyatskoye as Kim Il Sung's war records show that he arrived at Vyatskoye only in July 1942 and had been living in Voroshilov before, thus Kim Jong Il is generally agreed to have been born in Voroshilov. Kim's mother, Kim Jong-suk, was Kim Il Sung's first wife. Inside his family, he was nicknamed "Yura", while his younger brother Kim Man-il (born Aleksandr Kim) was nicknamed "Shura". According to Fyodor Tertitskiy, it is a misconception that Kim was born as Yuri.
Kim's official biography states he was born in the Paektusan Secret Camp on Paektu Mountain in Korea under Japanese rule on 16 February 1942. According to one comrade of Kim's mother, Lee Min, word of Kim's birth first reached an army camp in Vyatskoye via radio and neither Kim nor his mother returned there until the following year. Kim Jong Suk died in 1949 from an ectopic pregnancy.
In 1945, Kim was four years old when World War II ended and Korea regained independence from Japan. His father returned to Pyongyang that September, and in late November Jong-Il returned to Korea via a Soviet ship, landing at Sonbong. The family moved into a former Japanese officer's mansion in Pyongyang, with a garden and pool. Kim's brother Man Il drowned there in 1948 under mysterious circumstances.
According to his official biography, Kim completed the course of general education between September 1950 and August 1960. He attended Primary School No. 4 and Middle School No. 1 (Namsan Higher Middle School) in Pyongyang. This is contested by foreign academics, who believe he is more likely to have received his early education in China as a precaution to ensure his safety during the Korean War.
Throughout his schooling, Kim was involved in politics. He was active in the Korean Children's Union and the Democratic Youth League of North Korea (DYL), taking part in study groups of Marxist political theory and other literature. In September 1957, he became vice-chairman of his middle school's DYL branch (the chairman had to be a teacher). He pursued a programme of anti-factionalism and attempted to encourage greater ideological education among his classmates.
Kim is also said to have received English language education in Malta in the early 1970s on his infrequent holidays there as a guest of Prime Minister Dom Mintoff.
The elder Kim had meanwhile remarried and had another son, Kim Pyong Il. From 1988 to his retirement in 2019, Kim Pyong Il has served in a series of North Korean embassies in Europe and was the North Korean ambassador to Poland. Foreign commentators suspect that Kim Pyong Il was sent to these distant posts by his father in order to avoid a power struggle between his two sons. He is now reported to be back in North Korea.
Kim Jong Il officially joined the Workers' Party of Korea in July 1961. He rose through the ranks during the 1960s, and benefited greatly from the Kapsan faction incident around 1967, which was the last credible challenge to Kim Il Sung's sole rule. This incident marked the first time Kim Jong Il was – at age 26 – given official duties by his father, when Jong Il took part in the investigation and purges that followed the incident. 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.
Only six months later, 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. Kim Jong Il himself announced that he was up to the task and thus begun his influential career in North Korean filmmaking, during which he made significant efforts to further intensify the personality cult of his father and attach himself to it. In 1969, he produced a film adaptation of the North Korean opera Sea of Blood.
Kim Jong Il entered the WPK's Propaganda and Agitation Department (PAD) in February 1966. Kim Jong Il's years in the PAD were marked by his effort to become an expert in the field of propaganda. Kim Jong Il's main contribution in the department was to devise the "monolithic ideological system", later codified as the Ten Principles for the Establishment of a Monolithic Ideological System. Kim's various efforts greatly benefited the North Korean cult of personality. In 1969, he was appointed as the head of Kim Il Sung's personal guard. At the time of the 5th Congress of the WPK in 1970, Kim Jong Il reportedly suggested that everyone in the North Korea be mandated to wear badges with Kim Il Sung's portrait, which was subsequently adopted.