Kim attended school in China. He was a founding member of the Young Communist League of Korea in 1927. In 1930, he founded the Korean Revolutionary Army, a guerrilla group that fought the Japanese. In 1931, Kim left to join a Chinese Communist guerrilla group fighting in Manchuria?. It was during this time that he assumed the pseudonym Kim Il Sung]. In 1941, forced to leave Manchuria, Kim went to the Soviet Union. There he remained until he returned to Korea in 1945 to form the Central Organizing Committee of the Communist Party of North Korea.
Kim worked, with Soviet support, to unify Korea under communism. On September 9, 1948, he founded the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and became head of the Korean Workers' Party and premier of the new state. In late 1949, with the support of Stalin Kim made the decision to launch a major military campaign to unify Korea - the stalemate of the Korean War 1950-53.
After the war, Kim accelerated the trend towards dictatorship. He constructed a austere and regimented society that worshipped him as the "Beloved Leader". His rank continually improved from Premier of the Cabinet of the DPRK and President of the DPRK, he added General Secretary of the Party Central Committee and Generalissimo of the DPRK. He also received the title of Hero of the DPRK three times and the title of Labour Hero of the DPRK. In 1972 he relinquished the premiership but retained his position as leader by revising the constitution.
He developed the idea of juche, self-reliance blended with Marxism.
Kim Il Sung died on July 8 1994, in Pyongyang. He was succeeded by his son [Kim Jong Il]?.
His works have been compiled into Kim Il Sung's Works, Volume 1 to Volume 38 and Kim Il Sung's Selected Works, Volume 1 to Volume 9.
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