Kim Jong-il

Known for ActingBorn 1941-02-16Died 2011-12-17Khabarovsk, USSR

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.Read more

Movies & web series

Cinema in the Land of Comrade Kim

Nordkorea – Die Macht der Kim-Dynastie

President

NHK WORLD PRIME

Moving

Korea: The Never-Ending War

A State of Mind

Beyond Utopia

North Korea: The Parade

Kim Jong-un: The Unauthorized Biography

One Day on Earth

How to Become a Tyrant

King of Clones

The Red Chapel

Spycraft

The Propaganda Game

The Lovers and the Despot

I Am Sun Mu

Dictator: One Crazy Job

Dennis Rodman's Big Bang in PyongYang

Sea of Blood

North Korea: Inside The Mind of a Dictator

Friends Of Kim

North Korean Film Madness

Always Working Together for the People

Spotlight

Korea, A Hundred Years of War

Death of a President

Pulgasari

The Schoolgirl's Diary

Respected Comrade Kim Jong Il is a Great Thinker and Theoretician

North Korea: A Plan to Survive

A Friend of Kim

Kim Jong-il

Unsung Heroes