Kim Il-sung

Supreme Leader of North Korea from 1948 to 1994

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Lived 1912–1994, aged 82

PoliticiansPolitician

Wikipedia
140 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1912–1994
Aged 82
Known for
The Propaganda Game
2015

Summary

Updated 2026-08-27

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.

Biography

About

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;…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Kim Il-sung

Kim Il-sung

saidJun 1994

We've always been under sanctions.

— Remarks to Jimmy Carter (June 1994), as recalled during his final policy meeting and featured in the KCTV documentary The Year 1994 of the

Kim Il-sung

said1993

Engels once called the British army the most brutal army. During the Second World War, the German fascist army surpassed the barbarism of the British army.

— Kim Il-sung to the Swedish communist leader Frank Baude in 1993. Quote and translated fr Mot strömmen, pg. 186: "Engels kallade en gång den

Kim Il-sung

said29 Apr 1991

The national assembly of each country, as its highest legislative body, has a mission and responsibility to realise democratic government.

— For a free and peaceful new world, Speech at the opening ceremony of the 85th Inter-parliamentary Conference (April 29, 1991)

Kim Il-sung

said1977

The basis of the Juche Idea is that man is the master of all things and the decisive factor in everything.

— On Juche in Our Revolution vol. 2 (1977)

Kim Il-sung

said1976

The people are the masters of the revolution in each country. It is like putting a cart before the horse that foreigners carry out the revolution for them.

— Quoted in Kim Il Sung, Master of Leadership (1976) by Takagi Takeo

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

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