Who they were
Founder and ruler of North Korea for nearly half a century. Born near Pyongyang, he fought in the 1930s as an anti-Japanese guerrilla commander in Manchuria alongside Chinese communist forces, later withdrawing to the Soviet far east.
What they did
He was installed as the leading figure in the Soviet occupation zone, and the DPRK was proclaimed in 1948 with him at its head. In June 1950 he launched the invasion of the South that began the Korean War, as documented in Soviet-era archives. Afterward he consolidated absolute rule through purges of rival factions, built the Juche (“self-reliance”) ideology and an all-encompassing personality cult, and arranged hereditary succession to his son Kim Jong-il.
Legacy
He died in July 1994. The 1998 constitution styles him the republic’s “eternal president”, and power passed to his son Kim Jong-il under the hereditary succession he had arranged.