Kim Jong-Il

(1941– )

   Korean politician. Born in Vyatskoye, Khabarovsk Krai, Kim Jong-il is the de facto leader of the Democratic Republic of North Korea and the son of the country’s first ruler, Kim Il-sung. The younger Kim returned to Korea in 1945 as the country gained independence from Japan. Benefiting from his father’s cult of personality and totalitarian control of the hermit state, Kim Jong-il, as leader of the Korean Workers’ Party, emerged as the heir apparent in the late 1980s. While not taking the title of president, the younger Kim assumed total control of the country upon his father’s death in 1994.

   Under Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, North Korea’s relations with the Soviet Union and Russia degenerated rapidly. Russia’s support of the impoverished Stalinist regime prevented economic and diplomatic relations with its wealthier neighbor, South Korea, and harmed relations with the United States and Japan; as a result, ties with Kim’s regime were dramatically scaled back, as was military support. However, with the ascendance of Vladimir Putin, Kim was partially rehabilitated.

   The two leaders were frequently photographed together, and Kim paid a previously unthinkable visit to Moscow via the Trans-Siberian Railway in 2001; he later visited the Russian Far East. Russia, along with the People’s Republic of China, has attempted to persuade Kim’s government to abandon its nuclear weapons program, but to little avail. In 2009, reports of Kim’s ill health have led to fears in the region of instability associated with any change in leadership.

   See also Foreign relations.