Kim Jong-il
North Korean leader
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Born: February 15, 1942; Khabarovsk, USSR |
Kim Jong-il |
Kim Jong Il, leader of the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea, was born on February 15, 1942, in a Soviet Army camp near Khabarovsk,
U.S.S.R. (however, some North Koreans assert that his birthplace is Mt. Paektu,
North Korea). His father was Kim Il Sung, the Communist strongman who ruled
North Korea from 1948 until his death in 1994.
Little is known about Kim Jong Il, or "Dear
Leader" as he is known to North Koreans. According to the official North
Korean biography, he was born in an anti-Japanese guerrilla camp in North
Korea, and grew up sad and lonely because of his father's frequent absences
owing to the duties of political leadership. Kim is said to have attended seven
different schools, including two in China while a refugee during the Korean
War. He graduated from Namsan Senior High School in 1960.
After his high school graduation, Kim became involved in
government and with the ruling Worker's Party. He attended Kim Il Sung
University in 1960, taking courses in the political/economic department, and
graduated in 1964. Afterward, his rise in politics was predictably rapid. He
was named as a member of the party politburo and party secretary, and by 1969
had been appointed deputy director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department
and the party's headquarters. In 1973, he was made Party secretary in charge of
organization and propaganda.
For decades, Kim Il Sung (who was known as "Great
Leader") groomed his son for the presidency, and remarked to others that
the young Kim would carry out his father's political programs exactly as he
wished. Kim Jong Il is said to have impressed his father by proposing that
North Korea carry out a cultural revolution modeled on that of China.
Kim was officially designated heir to Kim Il Sung in 1974
and put in charge of party operations against South Korea. By 1980, he had
become a member of the Central Committee, and his portrait hung beside his
father's in the country's schools, homes and hospitals. In 1991, he was named
leader of the party and supreme commander of North Korea's armed forces.
Analysts have linked Kim to acts of state-sponsored
terrorism, especially toward South Korea. In 1983, a bomb killed 17 members of
a South Korean delegation in Burma. In November 1987, North Korean agents
placed a bomb on a Korean Airlines plane, killing all 115 on board.
Kim Jong Il ascended to the role of leader following the
death of Kim Il Sung on July 8, 1994. Although reports claim that veteran party
leaders or military leaders may be rejecting Kim as inexperienced, is expected
that Kim will be appointed to succeed his late father as North Korea's
president.
North Korea's governmental machinery continues to function,
even through a number of international incidents. The North Korean military
returned two U.S. helicopter pilots shot down over North Korea on December 17,
1994. North Korea pledged to honor the agreement with the United States to
abandon its nuclear weapons program if the United States will give it two
light-water nuclear reactors and a supply of crude oil.
In a bizarre incident, a North Korean submarine ran aground
on the South Korean coast in September 1996, and armed North Koreans spread out
in the hills where they were tracked down and shot by the South Koreans. North
Korea at first insisted that the submarine had simply run aground. Later they
apologized for the intrusion.
In October 1996, North Koreans arrested an American for
spying. He turned out to be a self-styled clergyman who sneaked into their
country to evangelize Christianity. He was returned to the United States. A
high-ranking North Korean government official, Hwang Jang Yop, the Party's
chief ideologue and a distant relative of Kim Il Sung, defected at the South
Korean embassy in Beijing. He joined an increasingly large number of high-level
defectors -- including Kim Jong Il's ex-wife -- who have been finding ways to
get out of the North.
Although difficult to analyze, there is obviously
instability in the North Korean government, and there are speculations about a
power struggle at the top. North Korea is thought to be on the verge of
starvation due to devastating floods and longtime economic mismanagement.