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 Peoples Army KPA the fourthlargest 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 militaryfirst policies making the army the central organizer of civil society Kims rule also saw economic reforms including the opening of the Kaesong Industrial Park in 2003 Following Kims 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