[imText1]Kim Il Sung was born as Kim Sung Joo on April 15, 1912, in suburban Pyongyang. He followed his father to Manchuria in 1925 where he attended middle school. In 1929, Kim was involved in a leftist student organization, and was caught and jailed for 6 months. After his release in 1930, Kim adopted his alias Kim Il Sung.
In 1931, Kim became a member of Chinese Communist Party. Two years later he led a small force under CCP’s Northeast Anti-Japanese Forces.
Kim’s armed struggle against Japanese colonial rule is true, but exaggerated by the North Korean authorities. His force of 100 men stormed Bochoen, South Hamkyung Province, where they attacked a few Japanese police officers and burned down the town hall. Kim’s regiment left within an hour.
[imText2]After the attack, Kim became one of the Japanese colonial government’s most-wanted men. In 1941, due to fierce pursuit by the Japanese army, Kim escaped to the Soviet Union, where he remained until the end of WWII.
[imText3]Kim Il Sung came back to Korea with assistance of the Soviets in September 1945. On October 14, 1945, Kim made his first public appearance at the Pyongyang Welcoming Ceremony.
[imText4]The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is officially declared on September 9, 1948. Kim’s army invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950 with the aim of reunifying the peninsula by force.
[imText5]Kim Il Sung successfully ousted all of his rivals after the Korean War. His idolization started in the 1960s.
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[imText7]Kim Il Sung loved to see what was going on in his country. During his 46 year reign he visited localities more than eight thousand times.
[imText8]In international relations, Kim Il Sung pursued a Third-World, non-aligned diplomacy. He distanced himself from quarrels between Soviet Union and People’s Republic of China.
[imText9]Kim Jong Il was officially declared the successor to his father in 1974. From that time Kim Jong Il consolidated his power and began managing the everyday running of the country. By the mid 1980s his father was a mere figurehead.
[imText10]A living god of North Korea, Kim Il Sung died in 1994. Kim’s mausoleum cost 900 million dollars, which could have spent on saving the masses of the North Koreans who were slowly starving to death.
