Kim Il-sung (right) with son Kim Jong-il

Kim Il-sung with his wife Kim JÅng-suk and son Kim Jong-il.

Discover discount prices on many lovely fragances. Lots of top perfume names to choose from, Clavin Klevin, Christian Dior, Chanel, Estée Lauder, find exactly what you like and save.

Sung

Kim Il-sung (15 April 1912 â€“ 8 July 1994) was the leader of North Korea from its founding in 1948 until his death, when he was succeeded by his son Kim Jong-il. more...

Home

Other

Shi

Sung

Anna Sui

Annick Goutal

Aquolina

Armani

Avon

Bijan

Bvlgari

Cartier

Cerruti

Chanel

Chantilly

Charlie

Chloe

Chopard

Christian Dior

Clarins

Clinique

Comptoir Sud Pacifique

Coty

Creed

Davidoff

Demeter

Diesel

DKNY

Escada

FCUK

Fendi

Gap

Giorgio of Beverly Hills

Givenchy

Gucci

Guerlain

Guess

Halston

Hermes

J Lo

Kenzo

Lacoste

Lalique

Lanvin

Lucky

Prada

Revlon

Rochas

Sarah Jessica Parker Lovely

Tiffany

Makeup

He held the posts of Prime Minister from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to his death (he does, however, continue as 'eternal president' post mortem), although his real power came from his position as General Secretary of the Korean Workers' Party where he exercised autocratic power. As leader of North Korea, he ended up switching from a Marxist-Leninist ideology to the Juche idea and established a personality cult. North Korea officially refers to him as the "Great Leader" and he is designated in the constitution as the country's "Eternal President". His birthday and the day of his death are public holidays in North Korea.

Early years

Much of the early records of his life come from his own personal accounts and official North Korean government publications, which often conflict with independent sources. Nevertheless, there is some consensus on at least the basic story of his early life, corroborated by witnesses from the period. Kim, the eldest of the three sons of Kim HyÅng-jik and Kang Pan-sÅk, was born Kim SÅng-ju, in Nam-ri, KophyÅng District, Taedong County, South P'yÅngan Province (currently the MangyÅngdae area of P'yÅngyang), then under Japanese occupation. The ancestral seat (ponâ€™gwan) of Kim's family is ChÅnju, North ChÅlla Province, and what little that is known about the family contends that sometime around the time of the Korean-Japanese war of 1592-98, a direct ancestor moved north. The claim may be understood in light of the fact that the early ChosÅn government's policy of populating the north resulted in mass resettlement of southern farmers in PhyÅngan and HamgyÅng regions in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. At any rate, the majority of the ChÅnju Kim, today live in North Korea, and extant ChÅnju Kim genealogies provide spotty records. Moreover, a persistent rumor alleges that during the North Korean occupation of Seoul in the Korean War, the North Koreans collected all the available ChÅnju Kim genealogies and took them North.

The exact history of Kim's family is obscure, due ironically to the deification of all things related to Kim in North Korea. According to the official version, Kim's family was active in opposition to the Japanese, and, in 1920, they fled to Manchuria, where he became fluent in Chinese. The more objective view seems to be that his family settled in Manchuria like many Koreans at the time to escape famine. Kim attended school in Jilin, where he rejected the feudal traditions of older generation Koreans and became interested in communist ideologies; his formal education ended when he was arrested and jailed for subversive activities. He joined various anti-Japanese guerrilla groups in northern China, eventually becoming a member of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army, a guerrilla group led by the Communist Party of China.