Photo Essay: Inside the World of Kim Jong Il

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Posted September 2008  

He’s among the most enigmatic and feared leaders on the planet. The few facts that we do know about Kim Jong Il are shrouded in suspicion and misinformation. Which makes the account of his former teacher in the September/October issue of Foreign Policy all the more rare. Follow the story of the strange life and times of the North Korean dictator in this FP photo essay.

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Like Father, Like Son: Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il’s father and the man whom North Koreans call their “Great Leader,” took great pride in his eldest son’s education. It was his desire to improve his son’s Russian that brought Professor Kim Hyun-Sik into Kim Jong Il’s life. In this photo from October 1980, Kim Jong Il and his father are attending a party to celebrate the 6th Korean Worker’s Party Convention, where Kim was reelected as head of the country’s National Defense Commission.

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The Ties that Bind: The details of Kim Jong Il’s family life are off-limits to the North Korean public. According to former teacher Kim Hyun Sik, “Should one inquire about Kim’s family relations or speak knowledgably about the subject, he would be taken to a concentration camp and severely punished.” In this 1981 family photo, Kim poses next to Kim Jong Nam, his beloved eldest son.

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To the Victor Go the Spoils: As Kim Jong Il solidified power as his father’s heir apparent, he gained hold of one of the most important posts in the country: general secretary of the ruling worker’s party. It would give him near complete autonomy to run the country as he saw fit. Here, in 1992, both Kims inspect a soccer field in Pyongyang. Less than two years later, his father would be dead of a heart attack, leaving the younger Kim in full command.

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One to Rule Them All: During the four years of official mourning for his father, Kim Jong Il continued to rule the country with a heavy hand. Displaying what are now frequently cited eccentricities, Kim reportedly refused to allow his father’s other children to attend the funeral and spent an “astronomical sum” on a mausoleum for his father’s body.

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The World Watches: Once Kim was firmly in power after his father’s death, the country’s march toward militarism continued. As his former teacher recounts, “Kim believed that although North Korea is a small state, through a ‘military-first’ policy, he could stabilize the nation; by growing the military, he could make North Korea a ‘powerful and prosperous state.’” The nuclear crisis that ensued made North Korea an international pariah instead.

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A Global Warming: U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s October 2000 visit to Pyongyang was a rare high point in Kim Jong Il’s relations with the West. Systematic and widespread North Korean propaganda blame the “American imperialists” for famine, terrorist attacks, and the long-time partition with the South.

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President for Life? Throughout his decades in power, Kim has managed to keep his country on lockdown, with his army of socialist soldiers unaware of the possibilities beyond their borders. That may be changing. As Kim Hyun Sik puts it, “More than 10,000 North Koreans have resettled in South Korea and tens of thousands hid in China….The people who pledge their loyalty to Kim could very well be the people who point rifles at him tomorrow. They offer their loyalty not to him but to the power that he holds. And that power could vanish in an instant.”