Kim Il-Sung: The First North Korean Dictator

Kim Il-Sung, a respected and beloved leader born to poor parents in Pyongyang, the heart of North Korea. He ruthlessly managed to make his way into power to become the first North Korean Dictator, by “fighting the Japanese and saving Korea from American imperialism” (Martin, 2006 p. 16). Kim was not only a leader to his people but also a father, he told the orphans of Korea “think of me your father and you my children”. (ibid 2006 p. 10) Those around him “saw him as a god, a genius from heaven who was a guerrilla fighter that founded the nation”. (Journeyman Pictures, Jacques Fresco 2013). Kim had a big personality cult, he was perceived as the country’s novelist, philosopher, historian, educator, designer, literary critic, architect, industrial management specialist, general table tennis trainer and agricultural specialist. During his regime “Kim Il-Sung represented on the one hand the embodiment of Korean naivety and on the other as a brilliant revolutionary warrior.” (Myers, 2010 p.70) As a young man his thinking came from the Marxist-Leninist ideologies between 1919 and1943, but in the end instead of nurturing his county as he claimed to, he ended up oppressing his people. Towards the end of his life Kim tried everything in his power

Although none of the image he projected was true, he told his people that he “fought the Japanese with courage and bravery but in truth he sat it out in China” (Truthloader 2013). Korea appears to be controlled by a Totalitarian regime .It is a concept in which the state holds total authority over the society and seeks to control all aspects of public and private life wherever possible. Kim Il Sung ran a society where opposition was impossible, there were no more land owning class, no independent unions left and absolutely no intellectuals. By the late 70’s, the extermination of the classes was clear .Everyone who might seem to be a threat to the Kim regime had been purged.”(ibid 2012