Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
5 Facts about North Korea’s Kim dynasty
5 Facts about North Korea’s Kim dynasty
Apr 26, 2025 1:07 AM

President Trump will begin a historic summit tomorrow with the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Here are five facts you should know about the Kim family, the secretive autocratic regime that has ruled North Korea for more than sixty years.

(Note: To avoid confusion, I’ve labeled each of the Kim dictators with a numeric designation: Kim Il-sung, the grandfather, as K1; Kim Jong-il, the son, as K2; and Kim Jong-un, the grandson and current dictator, as K3.)

1. Following the surrender of Japanese forces in 1945, the Japanese empire was required to surrender all portions of Korea north of 38 north latitude to the Soviet Union and all of Korea south of that marker to the United States. That December, the Soviets installed munist guerrilla leader named Kim Il-sung (K1) as the chairman of the North Korean branch of the Korean Communist Party. When the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was formed in September 1948, the Soviets recognized Kim Il-sung (K1) as the leader of Korea, both North and South. Attempting to make his dream of unification a reality, Kim Il-sung (K1) launched thefirst military action of the Cold Warby invading the Republic of Korea (ROK) in July 1950. Anarmistice was signedin 1953 that created the Korean Demilitarized Zone, separating North (DPRK) and South Korea (ROK). Because no peace treaty was ever signed, and because the U.S. has amutual defense treaty with the Republic of Korea, the U.S. is positioned to go to war if the DPRK resumes attacks on South Korea.

2. Soon after taking control of his country, Kim Il-sung (K1) developed such a strong personality cult that under the DPRK constitution he remains, even in death, the “eternal President of the Republic.” Within a year of being appointed premier, Kim Il-sung (K1) wasreferring to himself as “The Great Leader”and erecting statues of himself (the country now has more than 500 statues of him). His birthday is a national holiday known as the “Day of the Sun”, and in 1997 Kim Il-sung (K1) even created a new calendar that recalculated time from the year 1912, when he “came to earth from Heaven.”

3. Kim Il-sung (K1) placed his son in positions of power so that in 1994 Kim Jong-il (K2) would e the “supreme leader” of the DPRK. Over the next three years, Kim Jong-il’s (K2) agricultural system would cause a famine that killed 3 million of the country’s 22 million people. (AsThe Atlantic’s Jordan Weissmann says, under the idea ofJuche, a form of hyper-nationalistic, “Farmers were expected to e mother nature and grow enough crops to feed the entire population.”) As his people starved, Kim Jong-il (K2) focused on a policy ofsongun(military first) to maintain theworld’s fourth largest army.

4. Kim Jong-un (K3) became supreme leader after his father’s death in 2012. As thePentagon explained in a report to Congress, since assuming control Kim Jong-un (K3) has “solidified his grip on power by embracing the coercive tools used by his father and grandfather.” The regime has used “force and the threat of bined with inducements to quell domestic dissent and strengthen internal security; co-opt the North Korean military and elites; develop strategic military capabilities to deter external attack; and challenge the ROK and the U.S.-ROK Alliance.” In April 2013, notes the Pentagon report, Kim Jong-un (K3) announced the “byungjin” policy, which emphasizes the parallel development of the country’s economy and nuclear weapons program, to reinforce his regime’s domestic, diplomatic, economic, and security interests.

5. Kim Jong-un’s (K3) regime is intent on developing an intercontinental ballistic missilethat can strike the U.S. with nuclear warheads. He believes this will help him reach his main strategic goal, which thePentagon identifiesas ensuring “Kim family rule in perpetuity.” The Pentagon also notes that the overarching national security objectives of Kim Jong-un (K3) have remained largely consistent: international recognition as a nuclear armed state; maintenance of a viable deterrent capability; the simultaneous development of its economy and nuclear weapons program (i.e., the “byungjin” line); reinforcement of its military-first approach to domestic and foreign affairs (“songun”); tight control munications, borders, movement, and trade; and reunification of Korea under North Korea’s control.” The Defense Department says North Korea uses reunification with South Korea as a ponent of its national identity narrative to validate its strategy and policies, and to justify sacrifices demanded of the populace.

Image source: Wikipedia

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Reagan, Whittaker Chambers, and the Threat to Freedom
Over at the Liberty Law Blog, there is an excellent post titled “Ronald Reagan, Whittaker Chambers, and the Dialogue of Liberty” by Alan Snyder. Snyder delves into the influence Chambers had on Reagan and how their worldviews differed as well. Many conservatives and scholars felt Chambers’ prediction that the West was on the losing side of history in the battle against Marxism collapsed after the fall of the Iron Curtain and the Soviet Union. For many, the ideas of Chambers...
How to Steal a Bike in New York City
Edmund Burke didn’t really say it, but it still rings true: All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. In a test of this maxim, filmmaker Casey Neistat tries to steal his own bike in several locations around New York City and finds that most people do nothing about it—even when it’s done right in front of a police station. I recently spent a couple of days conducting a bike theft experiment, which...
Let’s Change Hearts and Minds (and Laws, Too)
Few clichés are so widespread within the evangelical subculture, says Matthew Lee Anderson, as the notion that our witness must be one of “changing hearts and minds.” In careful hands, the idea is at best ambiguous. At worst it reinforces the sort of interior-oriented individualism that allows for and perpetuates a blissful naivete about how institutions and structures shape our dispositions and thoughts. In less than careful hands, the phrase drives a wedge between law and culture by attempting to...
Integral Human Development
The Journal of Markets & Morality is planning a theme issue for the Spring of 2013: “Integral Human Development,” i.e. the synthesis of human freedom and responsibility necessary for the material and spiritual enrichment of human life. According to Pope Benedict XVI, Integral human development presupposes the responsible freedom of the individual and of peoples: no structure can guarantee this development over and above human responsibility. (Caritas in Veritate 17) There is a delicate balance between the material and the...
Constitutional Cases and the Four Cardinal Virtues
Should virtue be a consideration in judicial decisionmaking? Indiana Law Professor R. George Wright makes an intriguing argument for why the four cardinal virtues could be useful in interpreting constitutional cases: Judges typically decide constitutional cases by referring to one or more legal precedents, rules, tests, principles, doctrines, or policies. This Article mends supplementing this standard approach with fully legitimate and appropriate attention to what many cultures have long recognized as the four basic cardinal virtues of practical wisdom or...
Italy’s Tax Man Takes Aim at the Vatican
Kishore Jayabalan, the Acton Institute’s Rome office director, was interviewed by the Zenit news agency in an article titled, “Is Taxing the Church a Real Solution for Italy?” In the article, Jayabalan discusses the history of the Italian state and its imposition of property taxes on the Roman Catholic Church’s land holdings, residences and non-profit businesses. Sometimes in the past, particularly under Napoleonic rule and before the Lateran Pacts, the institution of property tax was often a subject of state...
Is Work a Curse?
Is work a curse, a result of mankind’s fall from grace? Not according to the Book of Genesis. As Hugh Whelchel, Executive Director of the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics, explains, what Adam was called to do in the garden is what we are still called to do in our work today: Humanity was created by God to cultivate and keep God’s creation, which included developing it and protecting it. You see, we were created to be stewards of...
How to Love Liberty More Than a Libertarian Economist
I have a deep and abiding love for liberty—which is why I find myself so often in disagreement with libertarians. Libertarians love liberty too, of course, but they tend to love liberty a bit differently. I love liberty in an earthy, elemental way. I love liberty because I need it—like I need air and food—for human flourishing. In contrast, the libertarians I’ve encountered tend to love liberty primarily as an abstraction. Indeed, the most ideologically consistent libertarians I know seem...
Lord Acton and the Power of the Historian
Looking through my back stacks of periodicals the other day I ran across a review in Books & Culture by David Bebbington, “Macaulay in the Dock,” of a recent biography of Thomas Babington Macaulay. The essay takes its point of departure in Lord Acton’s characterization of Macaulay as “one of the greatest of all writers and masters, although I think him utterly base, contemptible and odious.” As Bebbington writes, “Acton, a towering intellectual of the later 19th century, was at...
Obamacare’s Religious Rubes
The White House has a plan to mobilize prayer vigils in front of the Supreme Court in defense of Obamacare. It was reported that the administration met with leaders at non-profit organizations and religious officials who support the new health care law. The court takes up the constitutional test of the health care mandate in a couple of weeks. The mandate has now been challenged in 26 states. Cue the same stale big government religious prophets who confuse statism and...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved