Kim Jong-il
Kim Jong Il, born Yuri Irsenovich Kim on 16 February 1941, was a North Korean politician who was the second President of North Korea. He led North Korea following the death of his father Kim Il Sung in 1994 until his own death in 2011, when he was succeeded by his son, Kim Jong Un. Afterwards, Kim Jong Il was declared Eternal General Secretary of the WPK.
In the early 1980s, Kim had become the heir apparent for the leadership of North Korea, thus being established the Kim dynasty and he assumed important posts in party and army organizations. Kim was the General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), WPK Presidium, Chairman of the National Defense Commission (NDC) of North Korea and the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army (KPA), the fourth-largest standing army in the world.
Kim assumed leadership during a period of catastrophic economic crisis amidst the dissolution of the Soviet Union, on which it was heavily dependent for trade in food and other supplies, which brought a famine. Kim strengthened the role of the military by his Songun ("military-first") policies, making the army the central organizer of civil society. Kim's rule also saw economic reforms, including the opening of the Kaesong Industrial Park in 2003.
Following Kim's failure to appear at important public events in 2008, foreign observers assumed that Kim had either fallen seriously ill or died. On 19 December 2011, the North Korean government announced that he had died two days earlier, whereupon his third son, Kim Jong Un, was promoted to a senior position in the ruling WPK and succeeded him.
Photos
Movies (30)
Instadocs: The Prediction Games
2026 · Self (archive footage)
Cinema in the Land of Comrade Kim
2024 · Himself
Beyond Utopia
2023 · Self (archive footage)
North Korea: A Plan to Survive
2023 · Self (archive footage)
King of Clones
2023 · Self (archive footage)
Nordkorea – Die Macht der Kim-Dynastie
2023 · Himself
North Korea: Inside The Mind of a Dictator
2021 · Self (archive footage)
Korea, A Hundred Years of War
2020 · Self (archive footage)
President
2019 · Self (archive footage)
A Friend of Kim
2019 · Self (archival footage)
Korea: The Never-Ending War
2019 · Self (archive footage)
The Lovers and the Despot
2016 · Self - Politician (archive footage)
The Propaganda Game
2015 · Self (archive footage)
I Am Sun Mu
2015 · Self (archive footage)
Kim Jong-un: The Unauthorized Biography
2015 · Self - Politician (archive footage)
Dennis Rodman's Big Bang in PyongYang
2015 · Self (archive footage)
Dictator: One Crazy Job
2013 · Self (archive footage)
One Day on Earth
2012 · Self
Kim Jong-il
2011
North Korean Film Madness
2011 · Himself
The Red Chapel
2010 · Self (archive footage)
The Schoolgirl's Diary
2007 · Producer
Death of a President
2006 · Self (archive footage)
Friends Of Kim
2006 · Himself (archive footage)
A State of Mind
2005 · Himself (archive footage)
Respected Comrade Kim Jong Il is a Great Thinker and Theoretician
2000 · Himself
Always Working Together for the People
1994 · Himself
North Korea: The Parade
1989 · Self
Pulgasari
1986 · Executive Producer
Sea of Blood
1969 · Producer
