Kim Il Sung

AKA: Great Leader, Eternal Leader, Suryong (Supreme Leader)

Born on April 15, 1912 in Mangyongdae, North Korea.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) declares its independence on September 9, 1948. Kim is head of state and government, as well as chairman of the Central Committee of the Korean Workers' Party (KWP), and at one point controls the military. Opponents with the party are purged to secure his absolute rule.

In September 1953 senior leaders within the KWP attempt to overthrow Kim. Eleven conspirators in the failed coup are later convicted in a show trial, and executed with their property confiscated.

After the Korean war Kim established a work camp system similar to that used in the Soviet Union for the detention of "political" prisoners. It is estimated that by the end of the century between 150,000 and 200,000 political and criminal prisoners are held in six or seven sprawling complexes called 'kwan-li-so' (political penal-labour colonies).

Kim's decree that, "Factionalists or enemies of class, whoever they are, their seed must be eliminated through three generations," condemns up to three generations of the families of political prisoners to life imprisonment without trial. Most inmates face life sentences, many for "crimes" such as reading a foreign newspaper, singing a South Korean pop song, or "insulting the authority" of the North Korean leadership. All questioning or dissent is outlawed, as is the practice of any religion other than the worship of Kim Il Sung.

By 1955 Kim developed a Marxist-Leninist political ideology that emphasised the need for autonomy and self-reliance. Called 'Juche', or 'Kim Il Sung Thought', the ideology demands total loyalty to the paramount leader and the "religion of Kim Il Sungism" and stresses the benefits of sacrifice, austerity, discipline, dedication, unity, and patriotism. A personality cult was created around Kim just like his mentors from the Soviet Union and China.

In the aftermath of the Korean war, Kim successfully used the opportunity to purge his political rivals, and took on the task of reconstruction of North Korea which had been devastated by the war. He launched three-year, five-year, and seven-year national economic plans to rebuild his country, and in the process he established an unchallengeable position by eliminating all rival factions, replacing them with his partisan guerrillas.

The U.S. State Department reports North Korea as one of the world's most inhumane regimes. "Rigid controls over information, which limit the extent of our report, reflect the totalitarian repression of North Korean society. Basic freedoms are unheard of, and the regime committed widespread abuses of human rights. This year's report details among other abuses - killings, persecution of forcibly repatriated North Koreans, and harsh conditions in the extensive prison camp system including torture, forced abortions and infanticide."

Kill tally: About three million killed in the Korean War. Between 600,000 and one million North Koreans needlessly staved to death due to the economic legacy of Kim's regime. (Some reports claim that as many as three million die.)