Who is Kim Jong-Il?
He is regarded as a repressive leader within the Korean peninsula and border regions. He is legally referred to Kim Jong-il, the man who, until December, 17th of 2011 has been the leader and president of the communist republic of North Korea. He cuts a slightly bizarre figure of a leftist ruler and a ruthless leader, whose ideologies border on diplomatic deception, tricks and utopian dislike for the west. By design, he's a mysterious person whose intricate persona and weird lifestyle can never be unraveled in its entirety.
Researchers say Kim Jong il was born to Kim Il Sung on the second month of 1942 in North Korea. Lim, (2009) posits that the specific place is sacred Mount Paektu. At the time, Kim ill Sung was running away from the Japanese who had conquered North Korea. The Russians nick-named him Yuri, remembered as a chubby little boy who loved wearing a cadet’s uniform of the Soviet navy. Kim’s mother died when he was of a tender age at seven, what many pundits think contributed to his likeness to his father, with regards to their style of diplomacy. War in the Korean Peninsula began in 1950 resulting in Kim being sent to Manchuria, returning home three years later when the war halted.
Kim graduated from Kim il Sung University, having been in East Germany where It is said he was a training pilot. Between the years 1975 and 1980 he was tasked with being responsible of the cultural scene, a task that marked his origin of power. Success in the portfolio resulted in his promotion to being a military commander. In 1991, Kim Jong Il was made commander-in-chief of North Korea's powerful armed forces, essentially the final step in his grooming process. In 1993, the death of his father by a heart attack saw him assume total leadership. In 1994, Kim il Sung’s death caused countrywide mourning, similar to what happened recently after Kim himself suffered the same fate. After his father’s state funeral in the public’s glare, Kim Jong-il dropped out of the public’s limelight for a period of time. Time elapsed before he managed to take an interest in power and fight for it. He managed to get into power in 1991 through leading the Korean’s People Party, but he never held pragmatic authority until when he became the man in charge of the Armed Forces, even though he lacked military experience. His ruthlessness and impatience with unpatriotic individuals could be felt. Rumors surfaced that assassinated several of his subjects when they objected his authority. One of the main reasons why analysts believe that he was given the position was to stifle potential resistance to his succession.
Kim Jong-il’s social life is marked by his love for cognac, pleasure from dancing girls, and caviar as a food. The dancing girls consisted of a group of 2000 individuals regularly recruited from the country’s high schools as teenagers to perform in “pleasure groups” in the dictator’s 32-odd villas and palaces (Martin, 2006). The pleasure groups consisted of three groupings that were: dancing and singing, happiness, and sexual satisfaction groups. His country was evidently having problems paying its debts but Kim didn’t let go of his extravagant lifestyle.
He had a deep passion for art that traversed different genres like operas and cinema. It is thought that he composed 6 operas in a period of 2 years, which were ranked as the best mankind ever saw. His obsession with movies might have contributed to one of the weirdest incidents associated with him: In 1978 he ordered the abduction of a South Korean film director, Shin Sang Ok, and his wife, an actress. They were incarcerated in Pyongyang, for close to five years in prisons and re-education camps, and then released to “assist” with the development of the North Korean film industry.
Kim obliged his captives to improve the country’s film industry. Although he compensated them generously he restricted them like caged animals in the confine of his social circles. Their account of the ordeal after they escaped North Korea in 1986 depicts a Hollywood movie script. Lim, (2009) also proves the love Kim had on filming when he invested over 10 million dollars on productions, not only because he wanted to appease them, but also for his love to art. He was many times a serious man but he had a unique way of expressing his sense of humor. On their first meeting, Kim asked the director: “What do you think of my physique? Small as a midget’s turd, aren’t I?” (Lim, 2009, p. 23)
Apparently, not many people would agree with this but Kim was a pragmatist. In a secretly taken recording by Shing Sang Ok and his wife, Kim acknowledges that socialism system in the country was faulty and its technology very basic mainly because the people were de-motivated because of absence of incentives. This was also not helped by the fact that people who were generous in their ideas about the governance was purged. Kim seemed to understand what ailed his country’s troubled economy only that he was never comfortable with any major plans that involved the west.
The erratic rule of Kim was evident in many other areas too coupled with attractive assaults distributed with outbursts and remarks oozing paranoia. In 1996 he swayed off his father’s “Juche” philosophy to an aggressively militant “Red Banner” policy (Mcneill, 2011). This led to the dramatic defection of the 74-year-old Hwang Jang Yop, the principle architect of Juche and the first official of high regard to run to South Korea for safety. Apart from Russia and to some extent China, not many other world powers have aligned with Kim’s high-handed rule in North Korea.
Sometimes it appeared like he wanted to make amends but he would uncannily withdraw, but after gaining something from the process. More promisingly, a visit to Pyongyang in 2000 by Madeline Albright the then Secretary of State resulted in a promise from Kim that North Korea would halt its research on nuclear weapons if USA agreed to pay for a facility in Nuclear energy. After the visit Madeleine Albright said she did not find Kim as weird as his reputation suggested, describing him as “perfectly rational, isolated but not uninformed” (Mcneill 2011). But Kim’s effort to dialogue with USA faded with the arrival of the election of George W. Bush and his 2002 declaration that Iran, Iraq, and North Korea were the three major evil countries.
Kim Jong-Il resorted back to his extreme personality when he was infuriated by the change of policy by America. He even went ahead to claim openly that in opposition to prior pledges, North Korea persisted on its nuclear weapons program after all, and that a project to produce highly enriched uranium had been under way since 1998. Being the decider in critical issues regarding North Korea, Kim may have played a part in the country’s nuclear policy. If the assertion is true, then he was mischievous by insisting on diplomatic credit and trade concessions, and managing to buy time to develop the nuclear program in secret.
One of Kim Jong-il’s first initiatives was to appeal to the UN for food supply in order to feed North Korea’s starving population. This request would of course come with repercussion. It instantly became known that Kim was not ready to expose his country to indulgence by foreigners just to save his people. This happening, he did nothing to relax the control of the state on crucial aspects of economic life. The few aid workers from abroad were restricted to operate in the capital as Kim decreed that “Imperialist aid is a noose of plunder and subjugation, aimed at robbing 10 and even 100 things for one thing that is given” (Lim, 2009, p. 25). Increasingly restless with Kim Jong-Il’s tactics, Washington ordered International food aid to be cut off plunging the North Koreans into further misery. But this left the regime unscathed. He even told a diplomat of Russian origin that he very well knew that he was an object of global criticism, alluding that if he was not on the minds of his critics he must be a non-starter.
Kim Jong-Il was always unpredictable. In October 2006, under the auspices of Kim Jong Il, and to his delight, North Korea claimed that it had positively and secretly experimented on a nuclear test. A year later Kim announced that his nation would disable its main nuclear reactor, and even invited American experts to participate and witness the process. Later on Kim had a meeting with South Korea’s leader—Roh Moo-hyun—to agree on the modalities of achieving a peace treaty to end the animosity between the two neighbors. As always, he would find very little reasons to stall talks and fail all processes of making peace. He never put his full interest and support to anything.
While Kim is said to have an impeccable taste for better-quality things his people were actually dying from starvation. It was like he believed people suffering would not have a big enough impact on his rule. And then the devastating floods compounded the famine that rocked the country in the first years of his reign. The economy was on the rocks, and energy and food were ineptly lacking. Mass starvation was also contributed by extreme harsh weather patterns combined with a lacking government-run agricultural system. The North Korean government admitted that close to a quarter million people perished during that time but many outside organizations believe it was around ten times that figure (Martin, 2006).
Even though he was known to be a man of night pleasure, Kim’s late-night activities were not all recreational. According to Sang, the director of films who was kidnapped, Kim was a micro-manager and that he was solely responsible for all key judgments in North Korea even at the time when his father was ailing (Lankov, 2007). Furthermore, in his own way, he was an industrious fellow through consistently faxing and calling, visiting factories tirelessly, and offering suggestions that cannot be ignored.
Many North Koreans believed that he was charismatic. He was held in honor, and despite his upbringing being in opulence, people would always find a way to relate with him. On one visit to a factory where none of the workers had an overall, he showed solidarity with them by also removing his own coat, before going on to take a photo with them (Lee, 1994). This little gesture from Kim Jong Il was recorded to show his sympathy and empathy. It brought out his other side of humanity that not so many people, not even his North Korean brethren knew of.
Kim Jong Il was a very secretive person. Nobody knew anything regarding him with certainty, unless you were part of his key henchmen. When he was publicly anointed as heir to his father’s throne, Kim kept a low profile, not giving chance to any flying information about his whereabouts and transactions. It was only in 1992 that the CIA realized that he had two already grown offspring. In addition, proof of his extramarital and immoral affairs is seen through flying in Swedish and Thai for his entertainment. Mightily known as “Dear Leader” by his people, Kim is thought to have fathered at least four children by three women, in addition to clandestine affairs with bevies of dancers and imported blondes.
In 2004, Kim Jong-Il was seen to prepare his second son, Kim Jong-chul, to carry on after his relinquish of power, and in 2007 he was made deputy chief of a division of the Workers’ Party. Later, and more recently, Pyongyang has been supporting Kim Jong-un, one of his sons by Ko Yong-Hi, as the preferred successor to Kim Jong Il’s throne, and urged North Koreans to unite behind him. He might have inherited the presidency from his father but he arguably was better in implementing economic and social improvement programs, though his style of rule has largely remained as his father’s, albeit outrageously sneaky. Therefore, it is clear that the North Korean government is peculiar. This is proven by Dae-sook Suh, a scholar who has written on the issues of North Korea and said that, "Kim honors the legacy of his father, but the new government is a Kim Jong Il government; hence it is quite different from his father's" (Lim, 2009, p. 56).
Many individuals tend to think that Kim is irrational; a person that cannot be trusted with deals and treaties at work. People like Alexander Mansourov—a previous Russian envoy to Pyongyang—alleged that he was shrewd, pragmatic, and be ruthless. Kim was seen as an individual hard to resign his grip on his beliefs and so even went on to the extent of forcing them on to people. Many Koreans also believed that he brought new and better ways of governance. But officially, under Kim’s watch, North Korea has turned out to be strictly a necrocracy. Internationally, Kim Jong-Il is categorized as the worst tyrants ever seen (Lankov, 2007). Therefore, he will be remembered as the person who was good at awful things; degradation of human rights, mass displacements, killings, and torture.
References
Andrei, L. (2007). North of the DMZ; Essays on Daily life in North Korea (Jefferson NC: McFarland and Co.)
Bradley, K. M. (2006). ‘North Korea and the Kim Dynasty’. St. Martin's Press, ISBN: 0312323220, 9780312323226 8, History, Asia, General.
David Mcneill. (December 20, 2011). The independent. Kim Jong-Il: Leader of North Korea who deepened the cult of personality in his country following the death of his father.
Jae Cheon-Lim. (2009) ‘Kim Jong Il’s leadership of North Korea’ Taylor & Francis publishers, ISBN: 0415481953, 9780415481953
Lee, M. (1994) ‘Domestic politics and the unification; Seoul’s perspective’ in Korea and the world: Beyond the cold war, ed Young Wan Kihl, Westerview press, boulder pp. 167-88.
