Kim Il Sung
Kim Il Sung was born on Monday, April 15, 1912 in Mangyondae and he was a famous head of state from North Korea of Atheist religion.
He held the posts of Prime Minister from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to his death. He was also the Chairman and General Secretary of the Workers Party of Korea.
During his tenure as leader of North Korea, he ruled the nation with autocratic power and established an all-pervasive cult of personality. From the mid-1960s, he promoted his self-developed Juche variant of communist national organisation. Along with South Korean leader Park Chung-hee, Kim Il-sung was named one of the top 100 Asians of the Century by Time magazine (1999),. Lately (2009) in the Library of Congress Country Study on North Korea, he is described as "one of the most intriguing figures of the twentieth century". He outlived Joseph Stalin by four decades, Mao Zedong by two, and remained in power during the terms of office of six South Korean presidents, nine U.S. presidents, and twenty-one Japanese prime ministers.
At the same time, Kim reinstated relations with both Erich Honecker's East Germany and Nicolae Ceausescu's Romania. Ceausescu, in particular, was heavily influenced by Kim's ideology, and the personality cult that grew around him was very similar to that of Kim. However, Kim and Albania's Enver Hoxha (another independent-minded Stalinist) would remain fierce enemies and relations would remain cold and tense up until Hoxha's death in 1985. At the same time, Kim was establishing an extensive personality cult, and North Koreans began to address him as "Great Leader". Kim developed the policy and ideology of Juche rather than having North Korea become a Soviet satellite state.
In the mid-1960s, Kim became impressed with the efforts of Ho Chí Minh to reunify Vietnam through guerilla warfare and thought something similar might be possible in Korea. Infiltration and subversion efforts were thus greatly stepped up against US forces and the leadership that they supported. These efforts culminated in an attempt to storm the Blue House and assassinate President Park Chung-hee. North Korean troops thus took a much more aggressive stance toward US forces in and around South Korea, engaging US Army troops in fire-fights along the Demilitarized Zone. The 1968 capture of the crew of the spy ship USS Pueblo was a part of this campaign.
The Order Of Kim Il-Sung was created in 1972 and is the DPRK's highest award.
Kim Il-sung married twice. His first wife, Kim Jong-suk, gave birth to two sons and a daughter. Kim Jong-il is his oldest son. The other son (Kim Man-il, or Shura Kim) of this marriage died in 1947 in a swimming accident and his wife Kim Jong-suk died at the age of 31 while giving birth to a stillborn baby girl. Kim married Kim Song-ae in 1952, and it is believed he had three children with her: Kim Yong-il (not to be confused with the former Premier of North Korea of the same name), Kim Kyong-il and Kim Pyong-il. Kim Pyong-il was prominent in Korean politics until he became ambassador to Hungary. Since 1998 he is ambassador to Poland.
Kim was reported to have other illegitimate children, as he was well known for having numerous affairs and secret relationships. They included Kim Hyon-nam (born 1972, head of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Workers' Party since 2002).