Kim jong il

Kim Jong-il (in chosŏn'gŭl, 김정일; in Hancha, 金正日; Viatskoye, Soviet Union or Mount Paektu, North Korea; February 16, 1942-Pyongyang, December 17, 2011) He was a North Korean politician, dictator and military man. He was Chairman of the National Defense Commission, Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army, and General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea.

He was known in his country as the "Dear Leader", the "Beloved Leader" or the "Great Leader" and in the Constitution as the "Supreme Leader". As a theoretical author, he signed a good number of works in those who developed the juche theory, a collectivist and nationalist doctrine on which the policy of their State has been based. His birth date is a national holiday.

Biography

Childhood and youth

According to Western and South Korean sources, Kim Jong-il's birth name is possibly Yuri Irsenovich Kim (Russian: Юрий Ирсенович Ким, Jurij Irsenovič Kim) and would have born in a village of Viatskoe (or Viatsk), a Siberian military camp near Khabarovsk (in the Soviet Union). There, his father, Kim Il-sung, was a senior leader of the communist Korean exiles and a battalion commander in the 88th Independent Red Army Rifle Brigade, made up of Chinese and Korean guerrillas. The same sources cited above state that Kim Jong-il was actually born on February 16, 1941, and that his birth year was subsequently adjusted to be in harmony in terms of decades with that of his. his father, Kim Il-sung.

The official biography of Kim Jong-il maintains, however, that he was born in a military camp of the Korean resistance against the Japanese occupation on Mount Paektu, on February 16, 1942. According to this version, the event was foreshadowed by a swallow and marked "with the appearance of a new star in the sky and a double rainbow over the mountain".

Kim Jong-il's mother was the first wife of Kim Il-sung, the North Korean national heroine Kim Jong-suk. Kim was a child when World War II ended and Japanese troops withdrew from Korea. His father returned to Pyongyang in September 1945, and in late November he returned to Korea on a Soviet ship that docked at Unggi, where the family was taken in at the mansion of a former Japanese officer in Pyongyang. Kim's younger brother, Kim Shura, drowned there in 1947. His mother died in 1949 at the age of 31, while she was giving birth to her third child.

He received his primary and secondary education from September 1950 to August 1960 at the Namsan School in Pyongyang. Years later he graduated in Political Economy at Kim Il-sung University, where he studied from September 1960 to March 1964.

At the Party

Kim Jong-il at a Party Congress.

Kim Jong-il joined the ranks of the Workers' Party (PTC) on July 22, 1961 in the midst of a massive rally. He began to climb the ranks in the party after graduation: he served first as an instructor, then section chief, deputy chief, and department head of the Central Committee (CC) of the WPK, in a period from June 1964 to September 1973.

He was elected a member of the CC of the Party in October 1972 and secretary of the CC in September 1973. He was appointed as a member of the Political Committee of the CC and successor to Kim Il-sung in February 1974.

Finally, in October 1980 he was elected member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the CC, Secretary of the CC and member of the Central Military Commission of the Party.

During the next fifteen years, he would hold other positions, including Minister of Culture and Head of Party operations against South Korea.

Kim Il-sung, meanwhile, had remarried and had another son, Kim Pyong-il, sparking an intense rivalry between Kim Jong-il and his younger half-brother. Kim Pyong-il was subsequently transferred to a series of distant embassies to keep the two brothers in isolation. Kim Pyong-il was later sent to Hungary as an ambassador. This was probably because Kim senior did not want a power struggle between his two sons. To clear up the thorny issue, in 1980, during the sixth congress of the Workers' Party, he was confirmed as his father's successor to the detriment of his half-brother. minor, Kim Pyong-il.

In the period from February 1982 to September 2003, he was elected deputy to the Supreme People's Assembly for its VII-XI Legislatures.

At this time Kim became known as the Dear/Beloved Leader and the government began to build a cult of personality around him as it did with his father, the Great Leader . Kim Jong-il was regularly hailed by the media as the incomparable leader and the great successor of the revolutionary cause. He emerged as the most powerful figure behind his father in the state.

He was elected first vice president of the National Defense Committee at the First Session of the IX Legislature of the Supreme People's Assembly held in May 1990. In December 1991 he was appointed Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army. Since the Army is the true center of power in North Korea, this was a critical step. Veteran defense minister Ah Jin-wu, one of Kim Il-sung's most loyal subordinates, appears to have sought Kim Jong-il's acceptance into the army as the next leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, after despite his lack of military service.^{[citation needed]} The other possible candidate, Prime Minister Kim Il (no relation), was ousted in 1976. In 1992, Kim Il-sung publicly stated that his son was responsible for all internal affairs in the country.

Prior to the 1980s, North Korea was in deep economic crisis due to high military spending and economic blockade.

South Korea accused Kim of ordering the 1983 Rangoon, Burma (now Yangon, Burma) bombing, which killed 17 visiting South Korean officials, including four government members, and another in 1987 which killed 115 people aboard Korean Air Flight 858. A North Korean agent confessed to planting a bomb in the second case.

In power

Idealized portrait of Kim Jong Il

Kim Il-sung died in 1994 at the age of 82, and Kim Jong-il was elected by the Supreme People's Assembly as head of state. Although the position of president was left vacant, and seems to have been abolished in memory of Kim Il-sung, Kim was elected as Party General Secretary and Chairman of the National Defense Commission, therefore he was the true leader of North Korea, until the moment of his passing; Consequently, his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, was proclaimed Supreme Leader, Chairman of the National Defense Commission, Supreme Commander of the People's Army, and General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, thus becoming the new and absolute leader of the Republic..

The North Koreans bow to the statues of Kim Jong Il and his father, Kim Il Sung, at the Great Monument of Mansu Hill

With a hostile international environment, and the structural imbalances produced over decades due to allocating too many resources to the defense sector, as well as the economic blockade, North Korea has not given up on high military spending and its program nuclear power, considering it the only way to guarantee the country's independence and the absence of foreign attacks.

Regarding domestic politics, Kim gave occasional signs of favoring economic reforms similar to those carried out in China by Deng Xiaoping, and on visits to China he expressed admiration for China's economic progress. But in his country he continued to defend economic planning staunchly. He, too, had no intention of considering the de-collectivization of agriculture, which was the basis of Deng's reforms. In any case, reforms were introduced in a similar vein to that of the Chinese economy, such as collaboration with South Korea in the Kaesong Industrial Zone. Likewise, the country was willing to allow the entry of foreign capital, which materialized in March 2006 in a great business trip for investors.

In the time frame that coincides with Kim Dae-jung's visit to its northern neighbor, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea introduced a number of economic changes, including salary increases. Some analysts^{[citation needed]} said that these measures were taken to increase production and gain control of the black market, and possibly heralded a comprehensive reform towards the system market planned. Kim announced projects to import and develop new technologies and had ambitions to develop an emerging software industry.

Kim Jong-il was firmly in control of North Korea, grooming his son, Kim Jong-chul, to have been a candidate for head of state. His eldest son, Kim Jong-nam, appeared to be another possible candidate, but that fell through after he was arrested in 2001 at Narita International Airport near Tokyo traveling on a forged passport.

The DPRK did not appear to be in imminent danger of collapse, despite its international and economic difficulties. Under these circumstances, Kim was able to stay in power indefinitely while retaining the support of the army.

On April 22, 2004, a large explosion occurred at the Ryongchŏn railway station, several hours after Kim's train returning from his visit to China passed through the station. At first it was said that the explosion was caused by an electrical fault; however, South Korean reports suggest that there is evidence to suggest that the incident may have been an assassination attempt. Considering the isolation of the North Korean regime, it is difficult to confirm or refute this possibility.

In November 2004, the ITAR-TASS news agency published reports that anonymous foreign diplomats in Pyongyang had observed the removal of Kim Jong-Il's portraits across the country. The North Korean government strongly denied these reports. Radiopress, the Japanese radio agency, reported later that month that some North Korean media outlets had stopped referring to Kim honorarily as Dear/Beloved Leader and instead the central Korean broadcasting agency and other media outlets had been describing him simply as the general secretary of the Korean Workers' Party, chairman of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the National Defense Commission and the supreme commander of the Korean National Militia. It was not known if the possible reduction of Kim's cult of personality indicated a struggle within the North Korean leadership or if it was just a deliberate attempt by Kim to moderate his image in the outside world or if something like this happened.

Economic policies

North Korea's economy struggled during the 1990s, mainly due to mismanagement. Additionally, North Korea experienced severe flooding in the mid-1990s, exacerbated by mismanagement of the land.

This, coupled with the fact that only 18% of North Korea is arable land, led to severe famine and left North Korea economically devastated. Faced with a country in decline, Kim adopted the Songun policy to strengthen the country and bolster the regime. At the national level, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs acknowledges that this has resulted in a positive growth rate for the country since 1996, with the implementation of "historical market economic practices of a socialist type" in 2002, keeping the North afloat despite a continued dependence on foreign aid for food.

In the aftermath of the devastation of the 1990s, the government began to formally approve some small-scale trading and bartering. As Daniel Sneider, associate director for research at Stanford University's Center for Asia-Pacific Research, observed, this flirtation with the market economy was "quite limited, but, especially compared to the past, now there are notable markets that create the appearance of a free market system".

In 2002, Kim declared that "money should be able to measure the value of all commodities" These gestures towards economic reform mirror similar actions taken by China's Deng Xiaoping at the end of the decade 1980s and early 1990s. During a rare visit in 2006, Kim expressed his admiration for China's rapid economic progress.

A failed devaluation of the North Korean won in 2009, personally initiated or approved by Kim, caused brief economic chaos and exposed the vulnerability of the country's social fabric to the crisis.

International relations

Kim Jong-il's government made some efforts to improve its relations with South Korea, and with the election of Kim Dae-jung as South Korean president in 1997 an opportunity to begin negotiations began. In June 2000 there was a high-level meeting, the first between the leaders of the two Koreas, and it seemed that a thaw in relations was beginning, with the possibility of South Korean aid being sent to the North, and investment from the South in the North. But both leaders were subsequently unable to acknowledge any substantial (as opposed to merely symbolic) improvement in their relations.

Kim's relationship with the United States has always been rocky. During the Bill Clinton administration, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited Pyongyang (2000), and obtained a promise from Kim that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea would not continue its nuclear program if the US agreed to supply North Korea. other energy media. This deal never took place: the Democratic People's Republic of Korea continued to develop nuclear capabilities, and the US never paid for a substitute for nuclear power. The George W. Bush administration took a tougher stance toward the country, accusing it of nuclear blackmail. Bush declared the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to be part of the Axis of Evil, along with Iran and Iraq. The Chinese government has tried to mediate between the two states.

Kim Jong-il with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2000

In April 2004, Kim made an unofficial visit to Beijing (although news of the visit leaked) and met with Chinese leaders who tried to persuade him that a US invasion of North Korea was unlikely and should stop the nuclear weapons program.

Although there was hope with the resumption of the six-party talks on North Korean disarmament, in February 2005 Kim took the international community by surprise with the announcement that North Korea already possessed a nuclear arsenal, in In 2007, it announced its first atomic test, being condemned by various governments around the world, including its benefactor and neighbor to the north, the People's Republic of China. In May of that same year, 2007, information was leaked from the South Korean intelligence services about an alleged serious illness in the heart of the North Korean leader.

At the Inter-Korean Summit in October 2007, he signed, together with the President of South Korea, the Declaration of Peace and Prosperity by which both countries pledged to end the armistice of the Korean War by signing a treaty of peace, as well as to desist from the North Korean nuclear weapons program.

Personal life

Family

Stories that Kim has had four wives do not seem to be true: he was legally married to Kim Yong-suk, a wife reportedly chosen for him by Kim Il-sung, though they were estranged for some years. Kim had a daughter by her, Kim Sul-song (born 1974). However, he had several relationships with other women. His eldest son, Kim Jong-nam, was born from one of these relationships, with Song Hye-rim in 1971. His most recent romantic partner (described sometimes as a lover, sometimes as a wife) was Ko Yong-hee, with who had another son, Kim Jong-chul, born in 1981 or 1982, and is said to be his second son. In August 2004, rumors were encouraged by the Western media that Ko had recently died at the age of 51 from cancer, and as a result, Kim had gone into isolation and possibly fallen into a deep depression since Ko's death., but this was denied by the government.

Among the distinctions received by Kim Jong-il are the title of Marshal of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in April 1992; the title of Hero of the DPRK three times (1975, 1982 and 1992), the "Order of Kim Il-sung" three times (1978, 1982 and 1992), the "Kim Il-sung Award" in February 1973 and numerous other orders and medals, honorary degrees, professor's degrees, and honorary doctorates from various countries.

Personality

Kim Jong-il in 2000

Like his father, Kim was afraid of flying and always traveled in private armored trains for state visits to Russia and China. The BBC reported that Konstantin Pulikovsky, a Russian emissary who traveled with Kim through Russia on the train, he told reporters that Kim had live lobsters airlifted to the train every day and ate them with silver chopsticks.

Kim was said to be a huge movie buff, owning a collection of over 20,000 videotapes and DVDs. His reported favorite movie franchises include "James Bond", " Friday the 13th, "Rambo", "Godzilla", "Otoko wa Tsurai yo" and Hong Kong cinema, with Sean Connery and Elizabeth Taylor being his favorite male and female actors.Kim was also said to be a fan of comedies, inspired by his emphasis on team spirit and a mobilized proletariat.

In 2006, she was involved in the production of the film based on the Juche doctrine called 'The Schoolgirl's Diary', which depicted the life of a girl whose parents are scientists. The ACNC giving news report stating that Kim "improved his script and guided his production". Although Kim enjoyed many foreign forms of entertainment, according to a former bodyguard of his Lee Young Kuk, he refused to consume any food or drink that was not produced in North Korea, with the exception of wine from France.

Kim Jong Il and his father Kim Il Sung

Kim was reportedly a huge basketball fan. Former United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright ended her summit with Kim by presenting him with an NBA basketball signed by legend Michael Jordan. His official biography also states that Kim composed six operas and enjoyed staging elaborate musicals.

US special envoy for the Korean peace talks Charles Kartman, who participated in the 2000 Madeleine Albright summit with Kim, characterized Kim as a reasonable man in negotiations, to the point, but with sense humorous and personally attentive to people. It should also be noted that many conclude that Kim's antisocial and introverted characteristics, such as his courage in the face of sanctions and punishment, served to make negotiations extraordinarily difficult.

The defectors claimed that Kim had 17 different palaces and residences across North Korea, including a private compound near Mount Baekdu, a seaside lodge in the city of Wonsan, and Ryongsong Residence, a palace complex northeast of Pyongyang surrounded by multiple lines of fences, bunkers and anti-missile defense

Death

Portraits of Kim Jong-il and his father Kim Il-sung.

Kim Jong-il was reported to have died at the age of 69 of a possible heart attack on December 17, 2011 at 8:30 AM. m. while on a train trip outside the capital Pyongyang, however it was reported in December 2012 that he had died "in a fit of rage"; due to construction failures at the Huichon electric power plant project in Jagang province. North Korean state television reported on December 19, 2011 that Kim Jong-il's coffin would remain at the entrance of the Memorial Palace of Kumsusan until December 28, in which his funeral took place, and at the end of the Official Funerals and corresponding honors, his body was honored in a Great Funeral Procession and currently lies inside that palace.

Kim at a meeting during his visit with Dmitry Medvedev in August 2011

On December 29, at the conclusion of the obsequies and honors, Kim Yong-nam, president of the Supreme People's Assembly, confirmed Kim Jong-un as national leader, delivering the following speech in Pyongyang's Grand Square: "The fact that he has fully settled the succession issue is Great Comrade Kim Jong-il's noblest achievement."

“The respected Comrade Kim Jong-un is the supreme leader of our party, our armed forces and our country who inherits the ideology, leadership, character, virtues, courage and valor of the great Comrade Kim Jong-un. il...", said Kim Yong-nam, considered North Korea's symbolic head of state.

The death of Kim Jong-il sparked scenes of collective grief in which large numbers of North Koreans were seen crying uncontrollably. pain (in a context in which it was reported that even the birds themselves cried in pain for the loss of their leader), they faced sentences of up to 6 months of correctional work, in addition to public ridicule sessions that were carried out between December 2011 and January 2012.

He was posthumously awarded the honorary title of Generalissimo, in accordance with his services to the country and his anti-imperialist policy, as well as the inauguration of the first bronze statue with his image along with a similar one of his father, and he was commemorated his 70th birthday with a ceremonial act attended by members of the Workers' Party of Korea and the army corps, to public officials, workers and social organizations.

Hero of the Republic

Kim Jong-il Postum Portrait

Kim Statue riding horses in Pionyang

The Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPR Korea published Decree 2045 on December 19, which awarded the title of Hero of the Republic to Kim Jong Il, General Secretary of the Korean Workers' Party, Chairman of the Committee of National Defense of the DPRK and Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army.

The document highlighted that Kim Jong-il had made enduring revolutionary merits before the motherland and people, before history and times, shrewdly leading the Party, the army and the people in decades since his early joining the revolution. He extolled him as an eminent ideologue and theoretician, a great political figure of our time, a general of Songun who is honored with the name of Mount Paektu, a peerless patriot, and a generous father of the people.

He is awarded, it declares, the title of Hero of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the attached Gold Star Medal and National Flag Order First Class as a reflection of the unanimous wish of all Party members, officers and soldiers of the Army Popular and the rest of the people and in recognition of their enormous perennial feats accomplished in their glorious half-century struggle for the Korean revolution and for the triumph of humanity's cause for independence.

Also in February 2012, the North Korean government created the Order of Kim Jong-il in his honor, awarding 132 individuals for services in building a "prosperous socialist nation" and to increase defense capabilities.

Criticism

Kim Jong-il has been the center of criticism by governments and NGOs from different parts of the world, coming to be labeled a Stalinist dictator. Specifically, his regime is accused of human rights violations, as well as manufacture nuclear weapons in contravention of both international legislation (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) and its own commitment to make the Korean Peninsula a nuclear-weapon-free zone. Western media insist on the existence of concentration camps, such as Hoeryong ("Camp 22"), which would be the largest concentration camp in North Korea. It holds up to 50,000 men, women and children accused of political crimes. According to the British newspaper The Guardian, serious violations of human rights were committed there, such as the murder of children born to female prisoners.

The media also picked up on Kim's expensive tastes. In the framework of the luxury goods trade embargo with North Korea put in place by the United Nations in response to the country's nuclear tests in October 2006, Reuters reported that:

Nobody enjoys luxury goods more than the leader Kim Jong-il, who boasts of having the best winery in the country with space for 10,000 bottles. Kim feels predilection for delicacies such as caviar, which bring him from Iran; lobster, and the best sushiWhich makes him fly from Japan for him.

CNN said his annual spending on Hennessy brand cognac totaled $700,000, while the average North Korean earns the equivalent of about $900 a year. a variety of begonia named in his honor as "kimjongilia".

With the passing of the years in power, a cult grew from official media, as was the case with his father, to everything that surrounded him in the form of monuments, parades, portraits and pins. His birthdays, called & "Days of the Sun", are the reason for lavish celebrations (according to the BBC in 2002 more than 10,000 young people gathered to participate in a show in their honor) in which citizens receive a double ration of food from from the authorities.

According to former exiled journalists, students at journalism schools learn to place articles concerning Kim Jong-il before any other information and regularly take courses on the great works of Kim Jong-Il and Kim Il- Sung.

Ancestry