# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/kim-il-sung
# Generated: 2026-08-31T17:01:03.800Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/kim-il-sung"
name: "Kim Il-sung"
slug: "kim-il-sung"
description: "He founded North Korea in 1948, launched the Korean War in 1950, and ruled for more than 45 years as the architect of a totalitarian state built on the Juche ideology of self-reliance and an all-consuming personality cult that outlasted Stalin and Mao."
tagline: "Supreme Leader of North Korea from 1948 to 1994"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Kim_Il_Sung_Portrait-3.jpg"
gender: "male"
category:
  name: "Politicians"
  slug: "politicians"
profileType:
  name: "Politician"
  slug: "politician"
birthDate: "1912-04-15"
deathDate: "1994-07-08"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           79.74
  momentum:             1.46537221234031
  historical:           31.017516
  currentAttention:     9.397484722345233
  sourceConfidence:     65
  profileCompleteness:  65
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: 113
tags:
  - name: "Politicians"
    slug: "politicians"
  - name: "Politician"
    slug: "politician"
  - name: "Politics"
    slug: "politics"
  - name: "Literature"
    slug: "literature"
  - name: "20th Century"
    slug: "20th-century"
platforms:
  - platform:  "IMDB"
    url:       "https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0453487/"
    handle:    "nm0453487"
sources:
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q41117"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Il-sung"
    title: "Wikipedia"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pantheon.world/profile/person/Kim%20Il-sung"
    title: "Pantheon 2.0"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://als.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Il-sung"
    title: "Kim Il-sung"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://am.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E1%8A%AA%E1%88%9D_%E1%8A%A5%E1%88%8D-%E1%88%B1%E1%8A%95%E1%8C%8D"
    title: "ኪም እል-ሱንግ"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ang.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Il-sung"
    title: "Kim Il-sung"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://an.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Il-sung"
    title: "Kim Il-sung"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%83%D9%8A%D9%85_%D8%A5%D9%84_%D8%B3%D9%88%D9%86%D8%BA"
    title: "كيم إل سونغ"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "كيم ايل سونج"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ast.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Il-sung"
    title: "Kim Il-sung"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ay.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Il-sung"
    title: "Kim Il-sung"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://azb.wikipedia.org/wiki/%DA%A9%DB%8C%D9%85_%D8%A7%DB%8C%D9%84_%D8%B3%D9%88%D9%86%D9%82"
    title: "کیم ایل سونق"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://az.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_%C4%B0r_Sen"
    title: "Kim İr Sen"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bar.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Il-sung"
    title: "Kim Il-sung"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bat_smg.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Il_Sungs"
    title: "Kim Il Sungs"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ba.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B8%D0%BC_%D0%98%D1%80_%D0%A1%D0%B5%D0%BD"
    title: "Ким Ир Сен"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://be_x_old.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D1%96%D0%BC_%D0%86%D1%80_%D0%A1%D1%8D%D0%BD"
    title: "Кім Ір Сэн"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://be.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D1%96%D0%BC_%D0%86%D1%80_%D0%A1%D0%B5%D0%BD"
    title: "Кім Ір Сен"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B8%D0%BC_%D0%98%D1%80_%D0%A1%D0%B5%D0%BD"
    title: "Ким Ир Сен"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Il-sung"
    title: "Kim Il-sung"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AE_%E0%A6%87%E0%A6%B2-%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%82"
    title: "কিম ইল-সাং"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://br.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Il-sung"
    title: "Kim Il-sung"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Il-sung"
    title: "Kim Il-sung"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Il-sung"
    title: "Kim Il-sung"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cdo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Il-sung"
    title: "Kim Il-sung"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bn.wikiquote.org/wiki/%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AE_%E0%A6%87%E0%A6%B2-%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%82"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://cs.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kim_Ir-sen"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kim_Il-sung"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://fi.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kim_Il-sung"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://fr.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kim_Il-sung"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Kim Song Ju was born in Japanese-ruled Korea on 15 April 1912 and grew up in northeast China, where he joined anti-Japanese guerrilla groups as a teenager and the Chinese Communist Party in 1931. He fought with CCP-led units until 1942, when he was assigned to the Soviet Red Army and remained in the Soviet Union until 1945. After Japan's surrender and Korea's division, the Soviets installed him in the North, and in 1948 he established the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. He authorized the invasion of South Korea in 1950, triggering a United Nations intervention led by the United States; the war ended in stalemate with a ceasefire signed in July 1953. Under his rule, North Korea became a centrally planned socialist dictatorship with close Soviet and Chinese ties, and by the 1960s had a slightly higher standard of living than the chaotic South—a gap that reversed in the 1970s as South Korea's economy surged and the North stagnated. Kim developed Juche, an ideology of independence and Korean nationalism that set him apart from Moscow, though the country still relied on Soviet subsidies until 1991, when their loss contributed to the famine of 1994. He died on 