28th December 1972: Kim Il-sung becomes the first President of North Korea

Kim Il-sung’s early life and rise to prominence is widely disputed due to the personality cult that developed around him after the creation of North Korea. Some commentators even claim that he was an imposter. However, such claims are unlikely to be true as contemporary Japanese sources acknowledge King Il-sung as a popular and effective guerrilla leader in the Second Sino-Japanese War. His family had moved to the Chinese region of Manchuria in 1920 where the young Kim Il-sung joined, and then later led, a division of the Chinese-controlled Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army.
After the defeat of Japan in the Second World War, Korea was divided between Soviet and American control. The USSR installed Kim as chairman of the North Korean branch of the Korean Communist Party where he quickly began to consolidate his control. As well as proclaiming the northern Democratic People's Republic of Korea, with himself as the Soviet-supported premier, Kim also established a highly effective cult of personality through which he began to be known as ‘Great Leader’.
Having secured totalitarian rule at home, Kim maintained a course of independent communism that saw him establish Juche, or ‘self-reliance’, as the official political ideology of North Korea. This increasingly isolated North Korea from the rest of the world, and it is in this context that the new constitution of December 1972 established Kim as President of North Korea. He was already the country’s Prime Minister and the First Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea. Four years after his death in 1994 he was made Eternal President of the Republic.

[@pyr3x849]

Never heard the history of North Korea before. Interesting!

[@2wheeledscotsman127]

FREE THE PEOPLE OF NORTH KOREA

[@2wheeledscotsman127]

@I STAN Kim Jong-Un but Can't STAND Trump manse !

[@qwack7986]

I'm Mr.Quacker

[@johnsmith1487]

We need Kim il Sung type leadership in the USA.

[@mchris5888]

The most stupid, idiotic and delusional comment.

[@birdito1537]

Are you high