Kim Il-Sung

The official biography hailed Kim Il Sung as a hero, who supposedly fought and won against Japanese forces over 100,000 times from 1932 to 1945. By the end of the Korean War, when North Korea was left devastated with most of its resources depleted, Kim immediately embarked on a large-scale economic plan to revitalize the country. He focused on arms production on bulk manufacturing, granting North Korea a period of higher standards than the South, who was still going through economic crises.

His leadership after the Korean War laid the groundwork for Kim Il Sung to create a dictatorship, which is commonly seen in two phases. The first phase focuses on making the people reliant on the government and keeping the public happy, usually after an usurpation of power or a successful rebellion. In Il Sung’s case, this was his economic and land reformation plan that distributed approximately 2.4 million acres of farmland to peasants that had been under Japanese occupation. It appeared as though the people were directly benefiting from the regime, but there were people unhappy with the regime, who almost always “vanished” from public sight.

With more people standing against the government, Il Sung feared everyone would end up “disappearing,” so the government began to reeducate the population to believe that their government was always correct. This marked the start of the second phase. Kim kept his allies close and pushed his enemies out of the way; he treated his loyal followers with luxurious goods, but anyone who threatened his authority were either sent to foreign countries or, once again, “vanished.”

The paradise-like curtain started to fall. People were again starting to realize that things weren’t as good as they thought it was, but it was too late to change anything. The farmland they were given was the source of the commoner’s income, but high taxes forced them to survive off of the bare minimum.

Kim Il Sung was able to successfully establish a dictatorship that spanned over three generations, lasting to the present date.

Tommy Y