Kim Il-Sung: Father of a Troubled Nation

just before we get started some of you might know that i have another channel called mega projects which is all about mega projects if you don't know about that please do subscribe to it well by popular demand i wanted to cover some things on their channel that weren't quite mega enough for it so i present to you a brand new channel side projects cover stuff like secret soviet space weapons world war ii's greatest airplanes histories lost treasures and the movement of london bridge from london to a random town in america stuff like that new videos every week so if you are thinking boy simon doesn't make enough content for me well good news for you subscribe to that channel there is a link below and let's get into it north korea is a nation that elicits a certain kind of reaction from the world and not always the positive kind the country we know these days at least from the global news perspective is one that is fraught with controversy a dictatorship of the highest order this of course ignores the myriad beautiful things that north korea has to offer through its culture food music and social graces and the constant specter of the current leader kim jong-un stirring the pot doesn't help matters his father kim jong-il was also an expert at keeping world leaders on their toes but before all of that there was the founder of north korea kim il-sung from the ashes of world war ii he founded the country in 1948 with the help of the soviet union during his reign the country of north korea prospered and to this day the shadow of kimmel sung looms large over the nation long after his death occurred in 1994. the cult of personality that was propagated around him is still strong and he is known as the eternal president of the republic entire new calendars were created based around when he was sent from heaven today we will discuss the legacy of the man who birthed the nation of north korea kim il-sung kim il-sung was born kim seong-joo on april 15 1912. the same day the titanic tragically plunged into the depths of the atlantic ocean though his exact place of birth has been under scrutiny we know that he was raised somewhere near the current capital of present-day north korea pyongyang his parents lived a modest life while raising him and his two brothers and tried to introduce religion into their lives with several of his family members being involved in the presbyterian faith the faith of the family wasn't just relegated to the church they also held the fervent belief that the japanese occupation of korea was wrong and unjust japan had been taking over the korean peninsula two years before kim was born and his family outwardly and publicly protested the act japan's response to the korean uprising was swift and measured with over 50 000 arrests of korean citizens in kim's birth year japan effectively ruled the country from 1910 until the end of world war ii in 1945 and countless families were displaced kim and his family were included in this displacement and kim himself would not return to his home country until japan surrendered at the conclusion of the war kim's father was a physician and a teacher and held a certain power over the young boy showing him just how badly imperialist japan needed to be brought down in his autobiography kim recalled being five years old playing on a swing with his mother cradling him and already steadfast in his will to defeat the evil forces of japan when he was six he was already joining ranks of protesters in the march the first movement one of the largest public protests in korea against their occupier japan absolutely annihilated the rebellion but kim at least according to his own accounts was right there in the middle of the fray later recalling when the adults cheered for independence i joined them the enemy used swords and guns indiscriminately against the masses this was the day i witnessed korean blood being spilled for the first time my young heart burned with indignation since there isn't much in the way of concrete details of this part of kimil sung's childhood much of what we think we know is from his autobiography which he certainly embellished he spun tales of being a young boy and teen and laying spike strips across the road to take out japanese police vehicles but the crystallization of his supposed destiny to take his country back seems to have happened at age 14 when his father passed away while the family was in exile in manchuria before he died he told his eager son you must not forget that you belong to the country and the people you must win back your country at all costs even if your bones are broken and your bodies are torn apart kimmel sung was still just an awkward teenager but his upcoming school studies in u.n middle school in manchuria would prepare him with the kind of revolutionary thought that would guide him through his formative years until then he founded the down with imperialism union which is well exactly what it sounds like he also attended the wasung military academy but was quickly unimpressed by their methods something you don't usually expect from a 14 year old boy he lasted one year at the academy in total when at un middle school kim began to lean towards communist ideals rejecting the more traditional feudal views held by the older folks and adopting a more self-reliant outlook he took part in forming an underground marxist group at the age of 17 an act that earned him a short stint in jail when the police found out and an abrupt end to his education these small acts of aggression were just preparing him to formally join the communist party in china in 1931. [Music] harboring bitter resentment towards the japanese whom he blamed for being exiled from his own country of career kim jumped at the chance to help out the communist party in a more official capacity after spending time scrapping with several ragtag guerrilla groups in china when he called manchuria his temporary home the japanese hadn't bothered the region much until 1930 when several violent skirmishes arose which made it clear that the conflict was impending kim couldn't escape the japanese no matter where he turned he saw his chance to step up and warned that a planned japanese occupation of manchuria was coming in a defining speech to the communist league in may 1931 kim galvanized all anti-japanese allies at his disposal detailed why previous uprisings had failed and basically predicted to the crowd exactly what would happen four months later soon after the japanese government used a minor attack on their railroads in manchuria to send forces in and invade and install their own government kim was incensed he joined yet another coalition the northeast anti-japanese united army he took up arms and was given control of troops with the backing of the communist party of china kim led several hundred men into battle and earned the praise and tutelage of military higher-ups with close ties to chinese leader mao zedong himself this was the time kim began to make himself larger than life and build his own legend as he saw fit he changed his name officially to kimmel sung which translates to kim become the son not exactly a subtle or humble way to introduce yourself to the world he became as brash as his name and took control of the sixth division of the united army one bold attack on a japanese hell town in june 1937 was particularly notable because it involved him and his troops capturing a city just inside his home country of korea it was a symbolic victory one that laid bare his plans for his future and for the korean people he was coming home one way or another the japanese had begun taking notice of the young military leader too they had wanted posters for his capture labeling him the tiger he was actively hunted by special japanese units during 1940. that year saw the world already embroiled in the second world war so battle lines were already being drawn all the way around the globe one place where kim's efforts were appreciated was the soviet union and that country offered him a sort of refuge when japanese forces went after him and allowed his regiment to be trained by soviet forces and he even joined the soviet red army as a major and fought with them for the rest of the war kim was also beginning to grow his family as these years saw him and his wife kim jong-suk having three children one of whom was kim jong-il who would go on to start his own special brand of trouble a little later on [Music] kimmel sung had now spent the majority of his grown life fighting outside forces to be able to simply go back home when the soviet union properly declared war on japan in 1945 and started their approach into the korean city of pyongyang kim was afforded the chance to set foot back into his birth nation soviet leader joseph stalin instructed his leaders to occupy korea and wanted recommendations on who could help install a temporary communist government there kim was the perfect candidate after 26 years of being removed from his homeland kim sung was elected the chairman of the north korean communist party in december 1945. that doesn't mean he was ready from day one strangely enough he had spent little time in his own country so he didn't even know that much of the korean language he had to be coached for his own inaugural speech just days before it took place kim effectively ran the northern part of korea as far as administrative rank goes though he still answered directly to the soviets occupying his country which meant that even though he was finally home he was still under someone else's finger for the time being kim il-sung did launch the korean people's army a offshoot of the communist party and used his previous military experience and contacts to form a formidable army in air force again using that handy soviet training and equipment the strife between the north and south parts of korea started not long after world war ii when the u.s and russia decided to cut the country in half the soviets controlled the northern regions and the americans the south and the ensuing cold war did nothing but add more tension within the korean peninsula the soviets held elections in 1948 for a true leader of the newly named democratic people's republic of korea or as you know it north korea with kim il-sung earning the title of premiere the south named simply republic of korea had their own leader and declared their own statehood kim quickly consolidated power merging the communist party with other affiliations and organizations and morphing into something that resembled a bit more of a dictatorship the power of kim as an individual was quickly increasing and he was already making bold moves in the north he had statues created and distributed around the country and began dubbing himself a great leader the cult of personality was already on display his policies were as audacious as his view of himself he proclaimed that half of all farmable land should be redistributed in order for enough food to be produced for his people it also gave him the added pleasure of taking back land that was still held by many japanese property owners kim also introduced a countrywide standard eight-hour workday which was more like an overall guide as to how people should spend their day kim believed in eight hours work eight hours rest and eight hours study kim also introduced healthcare for all and it was one of the best systems in all of asia for quite some time for kim a well-educated well-rested worker put less of a burden on the healthcare system more health equals more production [Music] the border between north and south korea was set around 1948 at the 38th parallel though neither country openly admitted that they were split at all obviously the soviets who helped run the north and the americans who occupied the south disagreed kimmel sung had no small part in deciding that reclaiming all of korea was something that needed to be done stalin was armed with intelligence that the u.s wouldn't intervene if such an invasion occurred and kim was made bolder by the fact that china would also assist and so in 1950 kim's north korean army headed south and quickly took seoul the capital of south korea the south's army were already on their heels and kim's army began occupying most of their land but that was when stalin's information or lack thereof soon proved false as the united states along with the united nations absolutely began to intervene then u.s president truman received word almost instantly of the north koreans transgression and even compared the acts to hitler's sweep across europe in the 1930s that got the ball rolling for the americans to throw their hat into the war ring and for the next three years kim and his country darted back and forth between advancing in the conflict and subsequently having to retreat kim's prize taking of the city of seoul was thwarted several times the help from chinese forces bailed them out more than once but even still kim's capital of pyongyang was overrun by united nations armies by september 1950 and he had to flee to the northern reaches of his own country in a kind of metaphor for his entire life china again came to the rescue the next year and pyongyang was restored to team north korea kim would face these kinds of shallow victories and defeats for the next two years until the war ended in 1953 at a cost of over two and a half million lives kim was resentful of the chinese getting all the glory in the war while the north korean armies were relegated to the sidelines for a lot of the skirmishes kim also saw his grand prospect of reuniting the entire korean peninsula as one country slipping through his fingers and increasingly fought to have a truce formed later in the war that didn't stop him from claiming victory immediately after the war ended however and it didn't stop his people and country folk from holding that legend in their hearts [Music] despite kimil sung touting the end of the korean war as a victory for the north his half of the country was in tatters sure he was still in power as the leader of north korea but his economy and people were decimated so well he did what he was good at he consolidated power he had the country take over industry completely with an especially heavy focus on arms production and military expansion and it worked for a time as the 1950s continued his country was actually doing better in many ways than south korea where the u.s still remained and whose economy was incredibly unstable kim married for the second time in 1952 to kim song a whom many thought that kimmel sung had been seeing secretly before his first wife even passed away with her he had two more sons and daughter in a different approach than he usually allowed kim gave his wife a considerable amount of power in north korean politics kim himself remained a bastion of communism touting its benefits on the international stage he sided with chinese communist leader mao and began ridding his own country of those who did not follow his beliefs allies quickly became enemies was a close confidant of kim's during the korean war and was high in the ranks of the korean workers party the dominant political party in north korea he rose to the title of foreign minister which he held from 1948 to 1953. once the war was over and soviet leader joseph stalin died relationships soured between kim and pack kim sought to get rid of those who still had allegiances to the soviet union in china and make the regime his entirely allegations of pacs spying for the united states against north korea were fabricated and finally in 1955 kim had him executed against the soviet's wishes the path to kim trying to establish his own independence upset the soviets and the chinese kimmel sung was brought to moscow for six weeks in the summer of 1956 to receive a stern warning regarding him falling out of line with the soviet's ideas for how north korea should be run during that time korean communist groups and pro-soviet factions in north korea planned how to confront kim upon his return they opted to attack him during his next big assembly speech during which they brought up his methods of purging high-ranking officials and executing them causing starvation and famine among his people by hyper-focusing on industrialization and for trying to consolidate too much power in his own hands it was called the august faction an obvious attempt to overthrow kim and it failed he began brutally going after all pro-chinese and pro-soviet people in any kind of power in his country they began to flee back to their respective countries rather than be rounded up imprisoned or executed there was almost no one left to question kim and by 1958 north korea was fully independent with no debts left to china or the soviet union kim started to unfurl his newfound power in astounding ways he initiated a massive system in which his citizens were classified it was called the songbun caste system and it categorized a person into three different groups which were core wavering and hostile much of this information was derived from that person's personal history and which group they fit into directly impacted what kind of social benefits they would receive this included where they would be allowed to own a home which schools they could attend and even how much food they would be allotted if a poor unfortunate soul happened to be included in the hostile class they would be ostracized and often forcibly moved to remote areas of the country a hostile wouldn't be alone in this trip though often their entire families would be sent packing with them regardless of their political affiliations or past histories there were untold numbers of forced labor camps called quan liso where political prisoners and other national dissenters were often interred for their entire lives suffice it to say the conditions in these camps were abhorrent with countless tales of sexual abuse torture and starvation kim il-sung banished all sorts of real and perceived enemies to a fate almost worse than death and wielded an immense power that only enhanced his cult of personality [Music] kimmel sung made it a point to stay close with other communist countries like romania and east germany and although he had some frayed relations with the soviet union he began to rebuild trust with them as his rule extended into the 1960s and 70s the 60s saw him and north vietnamese leader ho chi minh develop a mutual respect for each other kim saw how ho chi minh tried to bring north and south vietnam together and it echoed the way kim had attempted to do the same thing with his country the ensuing war in vietnam would bring the two men even closer in 1965 kim began sending military and financial assets to north vietnam as fighting began to take over the country kim saw potential in the communist leader ho chi minh and each year saw millions more in financial backing for north vietnam as well as uniforms training and military air support kim told his brave pilots to fight in the war as if the vietnamese sky were their own and to show that he wasn't just offering help to military personnel north vietnamese students were given free education in north korea kim was trying to build a long-term relationship but it was fleeting once north vietnam started to look for an end to the war kim began to take issue the united states was now completely wrapped up in vietnam's war and kim wanted to make sure they stayed there the more attention they gave vietnam the less north korea received it was an extra slap in the face when the war ended in 1975 and north and south vietnam actually unified where the koreas had failed to do so the rest of the 1970s saw kim began to look to his successor though he oversaw a new constitution drafted for north korea in 1972 and it changed his title from premiere to president he started to realize he was approaching the end of his reign north korea was struggling economically while south korea was boosted by american money and was prospering north korea's practice of juche which was a method of extreme self-reliance was coming back to bite them as they deliberately alienated themselves from the rest of the world kim also began to develop a large tumor on the back of his neck something he was self-conscious about to the point of making photographers shoot him from his more flattering side the time had come to think about the future of his country and so at an assembly in 1980 he named his son kim jong-il as successor once he was gone he wasn't exactly setting his son up for success however former allies weren't interested in helping north korea's economy china had reformed to the point where north korea didn't have anything to offer them financially and had also befriended south korea the soviet union would teeter and then completely implode in revolution during the late 80s and early 90s north korea was an island of its own making kim il-sung seemed too tired of being on that island at some point during the 1990s however when north korea began to embark on their own nuclear program former u.s president jimmy carter traveled to north korea to try and talk kim down from such a hostile endeavor amazingly kim agreed to put a stop to the program and his new openness to negotiation seemed to be a step in the right direction to getting north korea to be a part of the world's neighborhood but it wouldn't last on july 8 1994 kim suffered a heart attack at his home in pyongyang kim jong-il tried to summon the best doctors north korea had to his father's side but it was for naught and kimmel sung passed away at the age of 82. a 10-day mourning period was instituted around the country and his body was housed in a public mausoleum where it can be viewed to this very day kimmel sung left behind a troubled nation one that would become further isolated and aggressive towards the world under his son's rule his image is still prominent in the country present at every train station and airport and dotting the landscape in the form of countless statues his birthday is still a public holiday while the man who was forced from his birth home and fought tirelessly to get back there built a troubling legacy the fact remains that he directly affected many of the 20th century's biggest events and that's no small feat so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below don't forget to subscribe brand new videos just like this several times a week and as always thank you for watching

Channel: Biographics

Views: 425,556

Keywords: biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler, North Korea, Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong-Il, Kim Jong-Un

Id: X_87We9AbAk

Length: 20min 32sec (1232 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 14 2020