Kim il sung age

Kim il sung death

He founded the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea , which he led as Supreme Leader from its establishment in until his death in He held the posts of the Premier from to and President from to He was the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea WPK from to titled as chairman from to and as general secretary after Following the military stalemate in the Korean War , a ceasefire was signed in July Under his leadership, North Korea was established as a totalitarian socialist personalist dictatorship with a centrally planned economy.

It had very close political and economic relations with the Soviet Union. By the s, North Korea had a slightly higher standard of living than the South, which was suffering from political chaos and economic crises. The situation was reversed in the s, as a newly stable South Korea became an economic powerhouse which was fueled by Japanese and American investment, military aid and internal economic development, while North Korea's economy stagnated and then collapsed.

The resulting loss of economic aid negatively affected North Korea's economy, contributing to widespread famine in During this period, North Korea also remained critical of the United States defense force 's presence in the region, which it considered imperialist , having seized the American ship USS Pueblo in This was part of an infiltration and subversion campaign to reunify the peninsula under North Korea's rule.