Kim Il Sung

Kim Il Sung (born Kim Song Ju; 15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was a North Korean revolutionary, military commander, politician, and dictator who founded the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), also known as North Korea, in 1948, and led the country from its establishment until his death in 1994. He was succeeded by his son Kim Jong Il and was declared Eternal President.

Kim was born in Japanese-ruled Korea and grew up in northeast China. During his teenage years, he became a communist and joined various anti-Japanese guerrilla groups, eventually joining the Chinese Communist Party in 1931, in which year northeast China was occupied by Japan. Kim took part in several groups led by the CCP. In 1942, he was assigned to the Soviet Red Army, leading him to stay in the Soviet Union until 1945. Following the division of Korea after Japan's surrender in World War II, he was put into power by the Soviet Union in North Korea. Kim authorized the invasion of South Korea in 1950, 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 1953. He was the third-longest serving non-royal head of state and government in the 20th century, in office for more than 45 years.

Under his leadership, North Korea was established as a totalitarian, socialist, personalist dictatorship with a centrally planned economy. The country had very close political and economic relations with the Soviet Union and China. By the 1960s, 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 1970s, as a newly stable South Korea became an economic powerhouse while North Korea's economy stagnated and then collapsed. Differences emerged between North Korea and the Soviet Union; chief among them was Kim's ideology of Juche, which focused on the principles of "Independence, Self-sustenance and Self-Defence" and Korean nationalism.

Despite the official policy of "self-reliance" (jaryok gaengsaeng, Korean: 자력갱생), the country received funds, subsidies and aid from the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The resulting loss of economic aid negatively affected North Korea's economy, contributing to widespread famine in 1994. 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 1968. 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 1980, his oldest son Kim Jong Il was elected to be a Presidium member and chosen to be his successor, thus establishing the Kim dynasty.