Kim jong-chul
Kim Il Sung
Leader of North Korea from to
In this Korean name, the family name is Kim.
Eternal President Kim Il Sung | |
|---|---|
Official portrait, | |
| In office 12 October &#;– 8 July | |
| Secretary | |
| Preceded by | Himself (as Chairman) |
| Succeeded by | Kim Jong Il |
| In office 28 December &#;– 8 July | |
| Premier | |
| Vice President | |
| Preceded by | Office established[a] |
| Succeeded by | Office abolished[b][c] |
| In office 14 December &#;– 8 July | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Kim Jong Il |
| In office 24 June &#;– 12 October | |
| Vice Chairman | |
| Preceded by | Kim Tu-bong |
| Succeeded by | Himself (as General Secretary) |
| In office 9 September &#;– 28 December | |
| President | |
| First Vice Premier | Kim Il |
| Vice Premier | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Kim Il |
| In office 5 July &#;– 24 December | |
| Preceded by | Choe Yong-gon |
| Succeeded by | Kim Jong Il |
| Born | Kim Song Ju ()15 April Namni, Heijō, Heian'nan-dō, Korea, Empire of Japan |
| Died | 8 July () (aged&#;82) Hyangsan Residence, Hyangsan County, North Pyongan Province, North&#;Korea |
| Resting place | Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, Pyongyang |
| Nationality | North Korean |
| Political party | Workers' Party of Korea |
| Other political affiliations | |
| Spouses |
|
| Children | 7, including Kim Jong Il, Kim Man-il, Kim Kyong-hui and Kim Pyong Il[2] |
| Parents | |
| Relatives | Kim family |
| Signature | |
| Allegiance | |
| Branch/service | |
| Years&#;of service | |
| Rank | Taewonsu |
| Unit | 88th Separate Rifle Brigade, Red Army |
| Commands | All (Supreme Commander) |
| Battles/wars | |
| Chosŏn'gŭl | 김일성 |
| Hancha | 金日成[3] |
| Revised Romanization | Gim Ilseong |
| McCune–Reischauer | Kim Ilsŏng |
| Chosŏn'gŭl | 김성주 |
| Hancha | 金成柱[3] |
| Revised Romanization | Gim Seongju |
| McCune–Reischauer | Kim Sŏngju |
Central institution membership
Other offices held
| |
Kim Il Sung[d] (;[4]Korean:&#;김일성, Korean pronunciation:[kimils͈ʌŋ]; born Kim Song Ju;[e][5] 15 April – 8 July ) was a North Korean politician and military leader.
He founded the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea, which he led as Supreme Leader from its establishment in until his death in Afterwards, he was succeeded by his son Kim Jong Il and was declared Eternal President.
He held the posts of the Premier from to and President from to He was the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) from to (titled as chairman from to and as general secretary after ).
Coming to power after the end of Japanese rule over Korea in following Japan's surrender in World War II, he authorized the invasion of South Korea in , triggering an intervention in defense of South Korea by the United Nations led by the United States. Following the military stalemate in the Korean War, a ceasefire was signed in July He was the third-longest serving non-royal head of state/government in the 20th century, in office for more than 45 years.
Under his leadership, North Korea was established as a totalitariansocialistpersonalist dictatorship with a centrally planned economy. It had very close political and economic relations with the Soviet Union. By the s, North Korea had a slightly higher standard of living than the South, which was suffering from political chaos and economic crises.
The situation was reversed in the s, as a newly stable South Korea became an economic powerhouse which was fueled by Japanese and American investment, military aid and internal economic development, while North Korea's economy stagnated and then collapsed.[6] Differences emerged between North Korea and the Soviet Union; chief among them was Kim Il Sung's philosophy of Juche, which focused on Korean nationalism and self-reliance.
Despite this, the country received funds, subsidies and aid from the USSR and the Eastern Bloc until the dissolution of the USSR in
The resulting loss of economic aid negatively affected North Korea's economy, contributing to widespread famine in During this period, North Korea also remained critical of the United States defense force's presence in the region, which it considered imperialist, having seized the American ship USS&#;Pueblo in This was part of an infiltration and subversion campaign to reunify the peninsula under North Korea's rule.
Kim outlived his allies, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong, by over four and almost two decades, respectively, and remained in power during the terms of office of six South Korean Presidents and ten United States Presidents. Known as the Great Leader (Suryong), he established a far-reaching personality cult which dominates domestic politics in North Korea.
At the 6th WPK Congress in , his oldest son Kim Jong Il was elected to be a Presidium member and chosen to be his successor, thus establishing the Kim dynasty.
Kim il un biography of abraham maslow Kim agreed to dismantle North Korea's nuclear weapons facilities if the United States took reciprocal action. Although Kim Jong-un implemented some economic and agricultural reforms, human rights violations and brutal suppression of opposition continue to be reported under his rule. Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission. Korean media".Early life
Family background
Kim was born Kim Song Ju to father Kim Hyong Jik and mother Kang Pan Suk. Kim had two younger brothers, Kim Chul Ju&#;[ko] and Kim Yong-ju.[7]:&#;3&#; Kim Chul Ju died while fighting the Japanese and Kim Yong-ju came to be involved in the North Korean government; he was considered as an heir to his brother before he fell out of favor.[8][9]
Kim's family, part of the Jeonju Kim clan, is said to have originated in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province.
In , his great-grandfather, Kim Ŭngu, settled in the Mangyongdae neighborhood of Pyongyang. Kim was reportedly born in the small village of Mangyungbong (then called Namni) near Pyongyang on 15 April [10][11]:&#;12&#; According to a semi-official biography of Kim, he was born in his mother's home in Chingjong, and later grew up in Mangyungbong.[12]:&#;73&#;
According to Kim, his family was always a step away from poverty.
Kim said that he was raised by a very active Presbyterian Christian family. His maternal grandfather was a Protestant minister, and his father had gone to a missionary school and he was also an elder in the Presbyterian Church.[13][14] According to an official North Korean government account, Kim's family participated in anti-Japanese activities and fled to Manchuria in Like most Korean families, they resented the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula (which had begun on 29 August ).[11]:&#;12&#; Japanese repression of Korean opposition was harsh, resulting in the arrest and detention of more than 52, Korean citizens in alone.[11]:&#;13&#; This repression had forced many Korean families to flee the Korean peninsula, and settle in Manchuria.[15]
Nevertheless, Kim's parents, especially his mother, played a role in the anti-Japanese struggle that was sweeping the peninsula.[11]:&#;16&#; Their exact involvement&#;&#; whether their cause was missionary, nationalist, or both&#;&#; is unclear.[16]:&#;53&#;
Communist and guerrilla activities
North Korean government sources credit Kim with founding the Down-with-Imperialism Union in [17] He attended Whasung Military Academy in , but found the academy's training methods outdated and quit it in He then attended Yuwen Middle School in China's Jilin province until ,[18] 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 Korean Communist Youth Association&#;[ko], an underground Marxist organization with fewer than twenty members. It was led by Hŏ So (허소; 許笑), who belonged to the South Manchurian Communist Youth Association&#;[ko]. The police discovered the group three weeks after it formed in , and jailed Kim for several months.
Kim's formal education ended after his arrest and imprisonment.[16]:&#;52&#;[7]:&#;7&#;
In , Kim joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)&#;&#; the Communist Party of Korea had been founded in , but had been thrown out of the Communist International in the early s for being too nationalist.
He joined various anti-Japanese guerrilla groups in northern China. Feelings against the Japanese ran high in Manchuria, but as of May the Japanese had not yet occupied Manchuria. On 30 May , a spontaneous violent uprising in eastern Manchuria arose in which peasants attacked some local villages in the name of resisting "Japanese aggression".[19] The authorities easily suppressed this impromptu uprising.
Because of the attack, the Japanese began to plan an occupation of Manchuria.[20] In a speech Kim allegedly made before a meeting of Young Communist League delegates on 20 May in Yenchi County in Manchuria,[21] he warned the delegates against such unplanned uprisings as the 30 May uprising in eastern Manchuria.[22]
Four months later, on 18 September , 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 puppet government.[23] In , Kim became a member of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army, a guerrilla group led by the CCP.[24] Kim was appointed the same year to serve as political commissar for the 3rd detachment of the second division, consisting of around soldiers.[16]:&#;53&#; Here Kim met the man who would become his mentor as a communist, Wei Zhengmin, Kim's immediate superior officer, who at the time was 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 [7]:&#;8–10&#;
Kim's actions during the Minsaengdan incident helped solidify his leadership.[25] The CCP operating in Manchuria had become suspicious that any Korean could secretly be a member of the pro-Japanese and anti-communist Minsaengdan.[26] A purge resulted: over 1, Koreans were expelled from the CCP, including Kim (who was arrested in late and exonerated in early ), and were killed.[26] Kim Il Sung's memoirs&#;&#; and those of the guerrillas who fought alongside him&#;&#; cite Kim's seizing and burning the suspect files of the Purge Committee as key to solidifying his leadership.[25] After the destruction of the suspect files and the rehabilitation of suspects, those who had fled the purge rallied around Kim.[25] 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."[25]
In , Kim took the name Kim Il Sung, meaning "Kim become the sun".[27]:&#;30&#; Kim was appointed commander of the 6th division in , 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 4 June , he led guerrillas in a raid on Poch'onbo, destroying the local government offices and setting fire to a Japanese police station and post office.[28] The success of the raid demonstrated Kim's talents as a military leader.[28] 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.[28] 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.[29]:&#;–&#;[30] He appeared on Japanese wanted lists as the "Tiger".[31] The Japanese "Maeda Unit" was sent to hunt him in February [31] Later in , 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 he was the only 1st Army leader still alive. Pursued by Japanese troops, in late , Kim and a dozen of his fighters escaped by crossing the Amur River into the Soviet Union.[16]:&#;53–54&#; Kim was sent to a camp at Vyatskoye near Khabarovsk, where the Soviets retrained the Korean communist guerrillas.
In August , 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.[32][33] Kim became a Major in the Soviet Red Army[7]:&#;50&#; and served in it until the end of World War II in [34]
Return to Korea
The Soviet Union declared war on Japan on 8 August , and the Red Army entered Pyongyang on 24 August Stalin had instructed Lavrentiy Beria to recommend a communist leader for the Soviet-occupied territories and Beria met Kim several times before recommending him to Stalin.[10][35][36]
Kim arrived in the Korean port of Wonsan on 19 September after 26 years in exile.[27]:&#;51&#; According to Leonid Vassin, an officer with the Soviet MVD, Kim was essentially "created from zero".
For one, his Korean was marginal at best; he only had eight years of formal education, all of it in Chinese. He needed considerable coaching to read a speech (which the MVD prepared for him) at a Communist Party congress three days after he arrived.[37]:&#;50&#;
In December , the Soviets installed Kim as first secretary of the North Korean Branch Bureau of the Communist Party of Korea.[27]:&#;56&#; Originally, the Soviets preferred Cho Man-sik to lead a popular front government, but Cho refused to support a UN-backed trusteeship and clashed with Kim.[38] General Terentii Shtykov, who led the Soviet occupation of northern Korea, supported Kim over Pak Hon-yong to lead the Provisional People's Committee for North Korea on 8 February [39] As chairman of the committee, Kim was "the top Korean administrative leader in the North," though he was still de facto subordinate to General Shtykov until the Chinese intervention in the Korean War.[36][27]:&#;56&#;[39]
On 1 March , while giving a speech to commemorate an anniversary of the March First Movement, a member of the anti-communist terrorist group the White Shirts Society attempted to assassinate Kim by lobbing a grenade at his podium.
However, Soviet military officer Yakov Novichenko grabbed the grenade and absorbed the blast with his body, leaving Kim and other bystanders unharmed.[40][41][42]
To solidify his control, Kim established the Korean People's Army (KPA), aligned with the Communist Party, and he recruited a cadre of guerrillas and former soldiers who had gained combat experience in battles against the Japanese and later against Nationalist Chinese troops.[43] Using Soviet advisers and equipment, Kim constructed a large army skilled in infiltration tactics and guerrilla warfare.
Prior to Kim's invasion of the South in , which triggered the Korean War, Stalin equipped the KPA with modern, Soviet-built medium tanks, trucks, artillery, and small arms. Kim also formed an air force, equipped at first with Soviet-built propeller-driven fighters and attack aircraft. Later, North Korean pilot candidates were sent to the Soviet Union and China to train in MiG jet aircraft at secret bases.[44]
Claims that Kim Il Sung was an impostor
Several sources claim the name "Kim Il Sung" had previously been used by a prominent early leader of the Korean resistance, Kim Kyung-cheon.[37]:&#;44&#; The Soviet officer Grigory Mekler, who worked with Kim during the Soviet occupation, said that Kim took this name from a former commander who had died.[45] However, historian Andrei Lankov has argued that this is unlikely to be true.
Several witnesses knew Kim before and after his time in the Soviet Union, including his superior, Zhou Baozhong, who dismissed the claim of a "second" Kim in his diaries.[16]:&#;55&#; Historian Bruce Cumings pointed out that Japanese officers from the Kwantung Army have attested to his fame as a resistance figure.[29]:&#;–&#;
On August 12, , Yonhap News Agency revealed that U.S.
Army Military Government in Korea had already acknowledged that Kim Il Sung was in fact pretended by his nephew Kim Song-ju.[46] In , investigative journalist Annie Jacobsen published the book Surprise, Kill, Vanish, which further expounded that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) once concluded that Kim Il Sung was a blackmailed imposter operated by the Soviet Union.[47] The dossier titled "The Identity of Kim Il Sung" ascribed the leader's true identity to Kim Song-ju, an orphaned child caught stealing money from a classmate who killed his classmate to avoid embarrassment.
The dossier alleges Soviet intelligence officers identified the opportunity to blackmail Kim Song-ju into leading the North Korean Communist Party as a Soviet puppet under the name of the real war hero Kim-Il Sung, whom Stalin had disappeared. Jacobsen also writes that the CIA learned "specific instructions [were] given to the leaders of the regime that there should be no questions raised about Kim [Il Sung]'s identity."[47]
Historians generally accept the view that, while Kim's exploits were exaggerated by the personality cult which was built around him, he was a significant guerrilla leader.[48][49][50]
Leader of North Korea
Early years
Despite the United Nations' plans to conduct nationwide elections in Korea, on 15 August , the US-occupied south proclaimed the Republic of Korea, which claimed sovereignty over all of Korea.
In response, the Soviets held elections of their own in their northern occupation zone on 25 August for a Supreme People's Assembly.[51] The Democratic People's Republic of Korea was proclaimed on 9 September , 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.[52] 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 , the Workers' Party of North Korea merged with its southern counterpart to become the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) with Kim as party chairman.[53] By , Kim and the communists had consolidated their rule in North Korea.[37]:&#;53&#; Around this time, Kim began promoting an intense personality cult.
The first of many statues of him appeared, and he began calling himself "Great Leader".[37]:&#;53&#;
In February , 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.[7]:&#;68&#; There were improvements in the health of the population after he nationalized healthcare and made it available to all citizens.[54]
Korean War
Main article: Korean War
Archival material suggests[55][56][57] 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 SIS, had obtained information on the limitations of US atomic bomb stockpiles as well as defense program cuts, leading Stalin to conclude that the Truman administration would not intervene in Korea.[58]
China acquiesced only reluctantly to the idea of Korean reunification after being told by Kim that Stalin had approved the action.[55][56][57] 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 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 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.
Kim il un biography of abraham lincoln Retrieved 7 October Famous Political Figures. Archived from the original on 12 October It is also believed that members of Jang's family were executed as part of the purge.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.[59][60]
On 25 October , after sending various warnings of their intent to intervene if UN forces did not halt their advance,[61]:&#;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.[61]:&#;–&#; The UN troops were forced to withdraw and Chinese troops retook P'yŏngyang in December and Seoul in January 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.
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 to July , the front was stabilized along what eventually became the permanent "Armistice Line" of 27 July Over million people died during the Korean War.[62]
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.[63]
Consolidation of power
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 Soviet Union's five-year plans) to establish a command economy, with all industry owned by the state and all agriculture collectivized.
Kim il un biography of abraham Read Edit View history. Journal of Peace and Unification. Retrieved 24 April Anecdotes of Kim Jong Un's Life.The economy was focused on heavy industry and arms production. By the s, North Korea enjoyed a standard of living which was higher than the standard of living in the South, which was fraught with political instability and economic crises.[64][65][66]
In the ensuing years, Kim established himself as an independent leader of international communism.
In , he joined Mao in the "anti-revisionist" camp, which did not accept Nikita Khrushchev's program of de-Stalinization, yet he did not become a Maoist himself. At the same time, he consolidated his power over the Korean communist movement. Rival leaders were eliminated. Pak Hon-yong, leader of the Korean Communist Party, was purged and executed in Choe Chang-ik appears to have been purged as well.[67][68] Yi Sang-Cho, North Korea's ambassador to the Soviet Union and a critic of Kim who defected to the Soviet Union in , was declared a factionalist and a traitor.[69] The 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 [70][71] 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.[72]Kim Il Sung's cult of personality had initially been criticized by some members of the government.
The North Korean ambassador to the USSR, 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 Marx, Lenin, Mao, and 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.
Biography of abraham bible: Archived from the original on 8 May Retrieved 14 January Retrieved 22 January Following his father's death, Kim Jong Un was hailed as the "great successor to the revolutionary cause of Juche ", [ 70 ] "outstanding leader of the party, army and people", [ 71 ] and "respected comrade who is identical to Supreme Commander Kim Jong Il", [ 72 ] and was made chairman of the Kim Jong Il funeral committee.
In addition, Li stated that in the process of agricultural collectivization, grain was being forcibly confiscated from the peasants, leading to "at least suicides" and he also stated that Kim made nearly all major policy decisions and appointments himself. Li reported that over 30, 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.[73]
During the 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.[74][75] The last Chinese troops withdrew from the country in October , which is the consensus as the latest date when North Korea became effectively independent, though some scholars believe that the August incident demonstrated North Korea's independence.[74][75]
During his rise and his consolidation of power, Kim created the songbun, a caste system in which the North Korean people were divided 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&#;this caste system persists today.[76][77] 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.
Biography of isaac Archived from the original on 6 April China Daily. In , a machine gun was discovered beneath a juniper tree in Ryugyeongwon, located near a route that Kim was going to travel. Retrieved 28 MayLarge 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 s, those people who lived in its marginalized and remote communities were hardest hit.[78]
During his rule, North Korea's government was responsible for widespread human rights abuses.[79][80][81] Kim Il Sung punished real and perceived dissent through purges which included public executions and enforced disappearances.
Not only dissenters but their entire extended families were punished by being reduced to the lowest songbun rank, and many of them were also incarcerated in a secret system of political prison camps. These camps or kwanliso, a part of Kim's vast network of abusive penal and forced labor institutions, were fenced and heavily guarded colonies which were located in mountainous areas of the country, where prisoners were forced to perform back-breaking labor such as logging, mining, and picking crops.
Most of the prisoners were incarcerated in these camps for their entire lives, and inside the camps, their living and working conditions were usually deadly. For example, prisoners were nearly starved to death, they were denied medical care, they were denied proper housing and clothes, they were subjected to sexual violence, they were regularly mistreated, and they were tortured and executed by guards.[78]
Later years
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.
After Khrushchev was replaced by Leonid Brezhnev in , 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 s. Kim in turn was denounced by Mao's Red Guards.[82] 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 Romania.
Ceaușescu was heavily influenced by Kim's ideology, and the personality cult which grew around him in Romania was very similar to that of Kim.[83]
In the s, Kim became impressed with the efforts of North Vietnamese Leader Ho Chi Minh to reunifyVietnam through guerrilla warfare and thought that something similar might be possible in Korea.[84]:&#;30–31&#; Infiltration and subversion efforts were thus greatly stepped up against US forces and the leadership in South Korea.[84]:&#;32–33&#; These efforts culminated in an attempt to storm the Blue House and assassinate President Park Chung Hee.[84]:&#;32&#; North Korean troops thus took a much more aggressive stance toward US forces in and around South Korea, engaging US Army troops in fire-fights along the Demilitarized Zone.
The capture of the crew of the spy ship USS Pueblo was a part of this campaign.[84]:&#;33&#;
Albania's Enver Hoxha (another independent-minded communist leader) was a fierce enemy of the country and Kim Il Sung, writing in June that "genuine Marxist-Leninists" will understand that the "ideology which is guiding the Korean Workers' Party and the Communist Party of China is revisionist" and later that month he added that "in Pyongyang, I believe that even 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."[85][86] 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 countries like Yugoslavia. As a result, relations between North Korea and Albania would remain cold and tense right up until Hoxha's death in
Although a resolute anti-communist, Zaire's Mobutu Sese Seko was also heavily influenced by Kim's style of rule.[87]
The North Korean government's practice of abducting foreign nationals, such as South Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Thais, and Romanians