Kim It-sung

Kim It-sung (April 15th 1912 - July 8th 1994) was the founder and the first leader of the North Korea of 1948 until its death.

Kim It-sung occupied the posts of Prime Minister of 1948 with 1972 and of president of the Republic as from 1972, but the real source of its capacity was its position of secretary general of the Parti the Korean workmen or Party of the work of Korea.

First years

Born under the name of Kim Song-ju, Kim It-sung adopted her current name in resistance to the Japanese invader.

In March 1923, after a walk of 1000 laugh (or 400 km), Kim It-sung starts from Badaogou, to China, to join Mangyongdae, where he attended during two years the school Changdok, which he leaves in 1925 after the news of the second arrest of his father by the Japanese police force: he makes the wish then not turn over more to Mangyongdae as long as Korea will be under Japanese occupation.

He affirms himself as of the years 1930 like one of the principal leaders of the communist guerilla, activates in particular in Mandchourie.

June 4th, 1937, the Korean revolutionary popular Army, directed by Kim It-sung, overrides the Japanese troops at the time of the battle of Pochonbo.

It meets in the combat of resistance his wife Kim Jong-suk, who is also the mother of current directing from the North Korea Kim Jong-il.

Economic modernization and political independence

See also: Economy of the North Korea

After the War of Korea (1950-1953), the North Korea quickly rebuilt its economy by industrializing " at the rate/rhythm of Chollima " , the winged horse of the Korean legends which traversed 1 000 Li per day. The rate of economic growth, estimated at more than 10% per annum in the years 1960, slows down then becomes negative with the beginning of the year 1990, under the effect of the disappearance of the people's democracies in the USSR and Eastern Europe which deprive the North Korea of its traditional partners.

Kim It-sung defined the diplomacy North-Korean according to a policy of balance and independence with regard to her two powerful communist neighbors, China and the USSR, which a long time contributed to give him an image better than that of other socialist directors near the Western heads of state and government. In accordance with this will of independence, the Soviet troops left Korea as of the end of the year 1948 and the North Korea adhered forever to the Comecon.

In the religious field, the Catholic church denounced persecutions, at the origin of the opening of a lawsuit in beatification of 53 martyrs died between 1949 and 1952.

Since 1960 then again in 1972, Kim It-sung carried out proposals for a peaceful reunification of Korea finalized in the project of a " Democratic confederal republic of Koryŏ" , consisting in proposing (according to a formula being able to be compared with that now under consideration for China and Taiwan) only one State for two systems.

Its death, which has occurred at the time of an brain attack, gave place to immense scenes of tears in all the North Korea often interpreted like surrealist in Occident. The accounts of the refugees North-Korean testify however to the sincere affection of the North-Koreans towards their president.

The worship of the Large Leader

The veneration whose Kim It-sung was and is always the object in North Korea registers in a filiation confucéenne which déifié the emperors of Korea and affirmed the principle of the respect of the authority, the fathers and the Masters. This " respect" , according to the term used by the North-Koreans, is also interpreted by the Westerners like a Culte of the personality suitable for the Stalinisme. All the North-Koreans carry the badge of the Large Leader. Its portrait decorates the whole of the official buildings and is hung in all the residences deprived in North Korea.

The “large Leader” received the posthumous title, in 1998, of “President eternal”. He is the father of the current chief of the country, Kim Jong-il, “the dear leader”: the North Korea thus constitutes the only case to date of a dynastic succession in a State claiming Socialisme, and more precisely of the ideas of the Juche definite by president Kim It-Sung.

The official era for the dating of the acts, in North Korea, begins with its birth as a year from origin from the era Juche. The era perches begins at January and not at April 15th, birthday from the birth of president Kim It-sung dates which is one of the national festivals of the North Korea.

A Orchidée was baptized Kimilsungia by reference to president Kim It-sung.

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