Kim Jong IL North Korea's Leader

History Of Kim Jong Il In today's deeply heated political push with North Korea, my would like to know more about Kim Jong Il? Little is to be found about him, which fuels speculation and rumor. North Korea claims that Kim Jong Ils official birthplace is on sacred Mount Paektu, according to Carol Clark, CNN reporter. However, she states, "objective" researchers place his birth in the Far Eastern region of the Soviet Union on February 16, 1942. (CNN). Kim Jong Il graduated from Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung University in 1964.

Shortly after graduating, he assumed the role of culture czar for the Workers Party, focusing on producing plays and films. (CNN) Clark reports that in 1980 Kim Jong Il was formally designated as successor to his father. (CNN) Following his succession, Kim Jong Il attained high-ranking posts in the Military Commission and the Party Secretariat. (CNN) According to Bruce Cumings, author of Korea's Place in the Sun, preparations were being made for Kim Jong Il's succession in the 70s, and by 1973, he was already involved party organizational work.

(Cumings 409) Kim Jong Il assumed the title "Dear Leader" and the government "began spinning a personality cult around him patterned after that of his father, the 'Great Leader'" (CNN). According to the Korean Overseas Information Service, who published the Handbook of Korea, North Korea has not hesitated to show that it would use "terrorism to carry out a policy of animosity against the South" (Handbook of Korea 337). For example, the South Korean presidential delegation was bombed in 1983 and Korean Alight 858 was bombed in 1987 killing 115 people aboard.

(337) North Korea has also consistently broken off any chances for discussing reunification or refused to follow through with participation toward any type of peace. (337) In fact, recently, representatives from the United States, China, Japan, Russia and both Koreas met in Beijing in an attempt to diffuse the nuclear tension with Pyongyang. After the meeting, North Korea "angrily dismissed the need for more talks and threatened to strengthen its 'nuclear deterrent force'" (Fox).

However, a few days later, Pyongyang said it was "willing to resolve the nuclear dispute 'through dialogue'" while reiterating its threat to increase its nuclear capabilities" (Fox). Under Kim Jong Il, North Korea has also strengthened its ties with the Soviets, purchasing such armaments as fighter planes, Scud missiles, and surface-to-air missiles. (Handbook of Korea 337-8) North Korea has also increased its production of tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery. They also possess "hundred of tons of chemical weapons" and have conducted experiments with those chemicals.

(338) According to Cumings, the term "party center" became a "euphemism for Kin Jong Il. The North Korean system is not "simply a hierarchical structure of party, army, and state bureaucracies, but also a hierarchy of ever-widening concentric circles -- somewhat like the old RKO radio signal as depicted in advertisements. At the center is Kim. The next circle is his family, the next the guerillas who fought with him, the come the party elite" (Cumings 409).

In 1991, Kim Jong Il assumed the role of commander-in-chief of North Korea's armed forces, which according to Clark, was the final step a long "grooming process" (CNN). Kim also assumed the role of general secretary of the Workers Party and chairman of the National Defense Commission. The National Defense Commission is a group of 10 men that includes leaders of the air force, army and navy, who are "now considered the most powerful in the country," says Clark. (CNN) Kim Jong Il introduced his "Red Banner" policy in 1996.

Changes in policy began in 1997 when Hwang Jang Yop defected. Hwang Jang Yop was the "architect" of the juche philosophy not to mention the first high-level official to seek asylum in South Korea. Clark reports that Hwang described Kim Jong Il as a "strong willed dictator who is short-tempered and ruthless when it comes to punishing anyone who questions his policies" (CNN). Cumings quotes Roberto Unger as describing the political structure of North Korea by distinguishing between an inner and outer circle.

The inner circle "represents power and dominion, exercised everywhere by the few. The outer circle includes all the rest, and their search for community, decency, and participation through the architecture of politics" (Cumings 432). This problem of the inner and outer circles has never been resolved. In fact, he goes on to say the "Kim family nucleus" is the critical problem with North Korea. (432) If Kim Sung Il demanded devotion, his son, Kim Jong Il did more so.

In one of his tracts, Cumings finds this statement, which sums up his feelings: The parental organizations of man's socio-political integrity is the social community.. The Korean Communists were united firmly in one socio-political organism around the revolutionary leadership and set the pattern for close ties of kinship based on the collectivism between the revolutionary ranks and the people. (Cumings 413) Cumings refers to this type of leadership as "Neo-Confucianism in a communist bottle" (Cumings 413). Indeed, many others agree with Cumings.

Some see Kim Jong Il as a "clever manipulator, willing to take great risks to underpin his regime" (BBC). In fact, it is easy for some to demonize Kim Jong Il, reports CNN. He spends an estimated 25% of his North Korea's GNP.