leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
1912 CE
to 1994 CE
Kim Il-sung, (April 15, 1912 – 8 July 1994) is the leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly referred to as North Korea, from its establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994.
He holds the posts of Prime Minister from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to his death.
He is also the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea from 1949 to 1994 (titled as chairman from 1949 to 1966 and as general secretary after 1966).
He invades South Korea in 1950, and almost succeeds in overrunning the entire peninsula but for UN intervention.
The Korean War, sometimes referred to as the Korean Civil War, is stopped with a cease-fire signed on July 27, 1953.
As of 2013, the Korean war technically hasn't ended.
His tenure as leader of North Korea has often been described as autocratic, and he establishs an all-pervasive cult of personality.
From the mid-1960s, he promotes his self-developed Juche variant of socialist organization, which later replaces Marxism-Leninism as the ideology of the state in 1972.
In the Library of Congress Country Study on North Korea in 2009, he is described as "one of the most intriguing figures of the twentieth century".
He outlives Joseph Stalin by four decades, Mao Zedong by two, and remains in power during the terms of office of six South Korean presidents, seven Soviet leaders, ten U.S. presidents, fourteen UK Prime Ministers, twenty-one Japanese prime ministers, five popes of the Roman Catholic Church and coincides with the entire apartheid era of South Africa.
Following his death in 1994, he is succeeded by his eldest son Kim Jong-il.
The North Korean government refers to Kim Il-sung as "The Great Leader" and he is designated in the North Korean constitution as the country's "Eternal President".
His birthday is a public holiday in North Korea and is called the Day of the Sun.
