Kim Jong-il

Kim Jong-il , born in Vyatskoye close to Khabarovsk in Siberia (Soviet Union), the February 16th 1942 according to its official biography (on February 16th 1941 according to other sources), is a statesman North-Korean. He is the current one directing North Korea since 1994.

He succeeded his father, Kim It-sung, which directed the country since 1948. Called the “Dear leader”, it occupies today the president's functions of the Comité of national defense and general secretary of the Parti working Korean.

The devotion dedicated to Kim, is regarded as a Culte of the personality. Its official biography, under " Brief history" from 160 pages differs on several points from the biographies from the Western observers.

Biography

According to her official biography, Kim Jong-il was born with the Mont Paektu in North Korea, on February 16th, 1942: on this occasion, a double rainbow would have appeared, as well as the star, highest in the sky. The media and observant Western generally appoint the date of the February 16th 1941.

According to other Western and South Korean sources, Kim Jong-il would have been born under the name of Youri Irsenovitch Kim in a small village from Viatskoe (or Viatsk), a military camp close to Khabarovsk, in Soviet Union, where his/her father Kim It-sung was an important figure among the communist Koreans exiled, having the rank of commander of battalion in the 88e Soviet brigade, composed of Chinese and Koreans. The mother of Kim Jong-il is the first wife of Kim It-sung, Kim Jong-suk.

Kim was born during the Second world war. His/her father returned to Pyongyang in September 1945, as old directing of the communist guerilla antijaponaise. In November, Kim It-sung accompanied her two sons (Kim Jong-il and its younger brother, Shura Kim, died accidentally drowned whereas he was still child) at the time of their return in Korea, on board a Soviet ship which made stopover with Unggi. In 1948, Kim Jong-il began the elementary school. His/her mother died in 1949.

According to her official biography, Kim Jong-il is graduate Namsan school of Pyongyang, attended in particular by the children of the communist executives North-Korean. Then it followed courses to the Kim university It-sung where it obtained a diploma in political Economy in 1964. Kim Jong-il also received courses of English at the University of Malta at the beginning of the Années 1970, during her frequent holidays in Malta like guest of the First Maltese minister, Dom Mintoff.

According to other sources, Western, Kim was also trained in Popular republic of China, where it was distant from his father for safety reasons during the Guerre of Korea.

Political ascendance

After obtaining her diploma of 1964, Kim Jong-il began her rise through the hierarchy of the Korean working Party, working initially in the department of Organization, before becoming member of the Politburo in 1968. In 1969, it was appointed director of the Department of the Propagande.

Meanwhile, Kim It-sung had remarié and had another son, Kim Pyong it, at the origin of an intense competition between the two half-brothers according to Western sources. Kim Pyong it embraced a diplomatic career, having in particular been posts some with the embassy of Hungary.

In 1973, Kim Jong-il was named secretary of party of propaganda and in 1974, it was semi-officially designated as successor of its father according to Western observers. During the fifteen following years, it would have occupied successively of other stations, of which that of Minister for the Culture, and in particular within the secret services North-Korean.

South Korea has thus shown Kim Jong-il to have organized in 1983 bomb attack with Rangoon (currently Yangon, in Burma), which killed seventeen South-Koreans in official visit, including four member of ministerial cabinets, like another attack which because death of a hundred and fifteen passengers of a flight of Korean Airlines. The pieces of evidence miss with the support and the government North-Korean always denied any implication in the attack of Rangoon. An agent North-Korean on the other hand would have admitted having placed a bomb in the attack of the flight of Korean Airlines.

Kim Jong-il would have gradually affirmed himself within the Korean working Party starting from the seventh plenary session of the Central committee in September 1973, conducting the campaigns of the “Three Revolutions”. It appears for the first time publicly, at the sides of his father, like one of the principal leaders at the time of the sixth congress of the Parti work Korea, organized in October 1980, at the conclusion which it sits at Politburo, the military Commission and the secretariat of the Party.

In 1991, Kim Jong-il is named supreme commander of the armed forces North-Korean. The big role played by the army in North Korea explains why, according to certain Western observers, this function is regarded as most eminent among those then exerted by Kim Jong-il.

In 1992, Kim It-sung declared publicly that his/her son was in load of the interior matters North-Korean.

Directing from the North Korea

The three years period between the death of Kim It-sung, in 1994, and the confirmation of his/her Kim Jong-il son like new directing from the North Korea, in 1997, was often interpreted abroad as the sign of a succession more difficult than envisaged. The authorities North-Korean point out that it was only a question of respecting the duration of the three years mourning which is of use in Korea at the time of died of the father. The change of being able intervened at one critical period for the North Korea, in a context of nuclear crisis and aggravation of the agricultural difficulties having led to a severe food shortage.

Dialog with South Korea

Kim Jong-il took part in the revival of the dialog between the two Corées, on the basis of North-South joint statement of June 15th, 2000, for a Réunification of Korea. At the time of this historical meeting between the two Korean leaders with Pyongyang, the number one North-Korean gave the indication of an open and cultivated man who strongly contrasted with that which prevailed hitherto apart from the North Korea:

“At the top of June with the South Korean president Kim Dae-jung, directing it North-Korean appeared on the world scene like a gracious diplomat, a host sympathetic nerve and a brilliant debattor. It is this Kim-là which met here Albright for long conversations Monday and Thursday. “It is surprisingly well informed and extremely cultivated”, a American declared which took part in the meetings. “It is concrete, considered, very attentive. It took notes. It has the direction of humor. It is not the insane one which had depicts many people. ” Of other people having met it recently the same judgments carried. Kim Dae-jung, whose country has been officially in war with the North Korea for fifty years, described it like “a pragmatic leader with a solid judgment. ” Albright qualified it “very decided and endowed with a great practical direction. ” even if it also found it illogical when it revealed to him its economic plans for the North Korea (source: BBC).

According to the South Korean former minister for the unification Park Song-wu, which had prepared the top intercoréen June 2000, the Kim Jong-il leader initially wished to meet the US president Bill Clinton before coming in his turn to Seoul. However, the election with the presidency of the United States of George W. Bush - and not of the vice-president Al Gore, as Pyongyang discounted it - would have prevented the concretization of these projects (source: maintenance with Park Song-wu to the daily newspaper The Korea Times , dated January 2nd, 2007, reproduced and translated with the following address).

At the time of the second top intercoréen on the level of the Heads of State, organized in Pyongyang from October 2nd to 4th 2007, the number one Kim Jong-il North-Korean received her South Korean counterpart Roh Moo-hyun: the two leaders signed a common document where they are committed promoting peace and economic prosperity in the peninsula. For this purpose, they will negotiate with the United States and China the installation, according to the terms of the joint statement of October 4th, of " a system of peace permanent" which would replace the current situation of armistice, which always prevails in the peninsula since the end of war of Korea in 1953.

Policy and constitution

The accession of Kim Jong-il to the functions of principal leader of the democratic Popular republic of Korea resulted in a modification of institutional balances at the time of the constitutional revision of 1998:

the powers of the Central committee, dominating in the institutional system resulting from the Constitution of 1972, decreased with the profit of the Comité of national defense, chaired by the Kim Jong-il leader, who defines the military priorities, economic and political;
the president of praesidium of the supreme Popular Assembly exerts the functions of Head of the State;
a cabinet of the ministers replaces the Administrative counsel, parallel to a reinforcement of the autonomy of the local authorities.

Moreover, the political transition led, according to the specialist in the North Korea Alexandre Y. Mansourov, with a certain political liberalization:

“ political transition was accompanied by a " décompression" gradual policy, which appear by a pretense of Glasnost in the media North-Korean, in particular for the cover of the external events, the recourse to a nonorthodoxe language in the report of the news, some Réhabilitation S policies without precedent, as well as an unusual transparency in the processes of decision makings governmental and the ways of thinking. ”

In the theoretical plan, Kim Jong-il created and developed the political of '' songun '', presented for the first time officially on October 20th, 1998, which gives the priority to the reinforcement of the army in the construction of the Socialisme North-Korean.

Economic policy

Controversies

Worship of the personality

The person of Kim Jong-il is surrounded by a worship of the personality: monuments, processions, portraits and badges. Its birthdays give place in general has sumptuous celebrations. In 2002, the BBC notes that 10000 young people took part in a vast spectacle in order to wish him a good birthday However in 2004, Kim Jong-il suddenly made remove all her portraits of the street, leaving only those of her father, Kim It-sung.

According to refugees former journalists, the students would learn how as of the school from journalism to place the articles concerning Kim Jong-il before any other information and would regularly follow training courses of levelling in “great achievements of Kim Jong-Il and Kim It-Sung”.

The Kimjongilia is a variety of Bégonia, thus named in reference to Kim Jong-il.

Way of life

Many observers note the tastes of luxury and the sumptuous way of life of “Dear Guide”. From 1989 1999 have, Kim Jong-Il would have ordered, according to ABC between 650 000 $ and 800 000 fine wine and alcohol $ per annum.

Kim Jong-il as has, according to refugees, a taste for the fine mets, as its section of foreign chiefs will buy directly abroad, whether it is in Japan, in China or Europe. This luxury also profits with its four troops of dance, exclusively female and young, so that they have all the clear skin and of good aspect.

In the absence of any source external with the official informations, the Washington Post , however estimates that the elements of the way of life lent to Kim Jong-il concern rumors sometimes as extravagant as its official mythology, even if it also recognizes that reality is quite as strange as what one paid.

Disappearance in 1978 of the South Korean realizer Shin Blood-ok and his former wife, the actress Choi Eun-hee, reappeared then with Pyongyang where they contributed to the development of the cinema North-Korean, would have been, the result of a removal on order of Kim Jong-il, before they obtain the political asylum during a displacement in Europe. The conditions under which Shin and Choi joined the North Korea are however discussed because this version of the facts is that given by Shin and Choi after their return to the South.

The " Washington Post" fact also state of the dared spectacles (for the North Korea) to which would devote the personal troop of dance of the leader.

Konstantin Pulikovsky, a Russian emissary having travelled with the " expensive leader" in its luxurious personal train between the North Korea and China that he dined on fresh lobsters, brought each day by helicopter with silver rods reported.

Private life

On Saturday, June 22, 2006, a South Korean newspaper announces that Kim Jong-il would have married for the 4th time.

His current wife would be Kim Ok, 42 years, graduate of piano of the University of Pyongyang. Kim Jong-il had before had three wives, all died. His first wife, Kim Young-sook, are extinct in the years 1970 for a nongiven reason. Its second, Sung Hae-rim, former actress, died of cardiac disease to Moscow in 2003, and its third, KB Yong-hui, former dancer, died of a breast cancer, in Paris, in August 2004.

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