Kim Il (politician)

Kim was born on 20 March 1910, in Hamgyong Province to a poor family of peasants.[1][3] Kim joined the underground Communist Party in 1932 and fought the Japanese occupation from 1935.[2][1] After the liberation of Korea in 1945, he served as secretary of the Party Committee of Pyongan Province. He was appointed to different important military posts since 1946.[4]After the Democratic People's Republic of Korea proclaimed independence in 1948, he served on the Politburo of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK). In 1954, he became the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry in the North Korean Cabinet instead of Pak Mun-gyu. He was then appointed his country's First Vice Premier in 1956.[2] Kim was elected a delegate to the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) in 1948, 1957, and 1962.[5] By 1970, he was the highest-ranking member of WPK after Kim Il-sung and Choe Yong-gon.[6]

In 1966, Kim Il-sung did not deliver his trademark New Year's address. The real reason is unknown,[7] but North Korean media has suggested that it was because of his care for Kim Il. According to the story, Kim Il was preliminary diagnosed with cancer on 31 December 1965. Worried, Kim Il-sung could not focus on his speech and instead took the measures to send Kim Il to "a country developed in medical science and technology to get accurate diagnosis", which was negative.[8]

In the 1960s, Kim furthered the North Korean position of independence from both the Soviet Union and China in the Sino-Soviet split. He tried to persuade Romania to stay out of Comecon like North Korea.[9] Kim also took part in the negotiations of trade and defense pacts with the Soviet Union. By March 1967, he declared the conclusion of economic and military agreements with Moscow.[10] He was named Premier in 1972 after Kim Il-sung gave up his premiership to become the President of North Korea. Kim Il was Premier until his resignation on 30 April 1976, due to failing health.[2]

Kim immediately became the Vice President, appointed by the SPA on 30 April.[1] His appointment was renewed on 15 December 1977. He served until his death in 1984,[11][12][13] alongside Pak Sung-chul, also Vice President.[3]

Kim was elected to the Presidium of the Politburo of the WPK at the 6th WPK Congress in 1980.[14] At the Congress, Kim Il-sung had proposed Korean reunification under a "Democratic Federal Republic of Koryo", but only if the South Korean president Chun Doo-hwan was ousted.[15] When Chun responded in his New Year's speech of 1981, asking Kim Il-sung to visit the South instead, Kim Il stepped in to denounce the South Korean administration and to call for all of Kim Il-sung's demands to be met before any dialogue could take place.[16] Kim Il issued a statement, saying: "This is nothing but a foolish burlesque designed to whitewash [Chun's] dirty nation-splitting nature and gain public favor with the 'presidential election' at hand... As we have already announced clearly, Chun Doo Hwan is not a man worthy for us to do anything with... [The proposal is] a foolish act of a rogue who does not know where his place is."[17] Kim said:

In the light of the present complicated North-South relations... it is clear to everyone that a possible time for general elections is far off, and moreover it is not logical to hold general elections according to principles of national self-determination and democratic procedure while leaving foreign troops and maintaining the military fascist system in South Koreaas they are. As for the formation of a Consultative Conference for National Reunification with those who represent the will of the people, it can only be regarded as mere empty talk under the present state of harsh repression where the conscientious people who speak for the demands of the popular masses are all cast into prison and their political activities banned by law in South Korea.... The US troops must be withdrawn from South Korea, democratization carried out there and the anti-communist confrontation policy brought to an end.

We are ready to meet the present South Korea rulers even tomorrow, if they show their new start by their deeds, by removing these obstacles blocking the way of national reunification. In that case the reunification consultative body to be organized may take any form-be it a conference for promotion of national reunification or a consultative council for national unification, we will not be nervous about its name. We only hold that the authorities of the North and the South and representatives of different parties and groupings and of all strata at home and abroad should participate in it, and that all reunification proposals to be raised, including the proposal for the establishment of the Democratic Confederal Republic of Koryo, and immediate questions for developing North-South relations in the interests of national reunification should be discussed.[18]

Three weeks later, Kim Il, in the capacity of Chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland,[19][20] demanded that a conference of 50 people representing the North and 50 the South should be organized. The proposal included the names of the desired Southern representatives, who included prominent politicians of parties banned in South Korea in 1980, but none from its ruling party.[18]

Kim spent much of 1982 receiving medical treatment in Romania.[1] Even after his reappearance in 1983, his health remained poor as evidenced by him missing numerous ceremonial gatherings.[21] He died on 9 March 1984, aged 73.[1] He was awarded a state funeral presided over by a 69-strong funeral committee.[3] His death is said to have marked the end of the period of dominance of the "old guard" of political leaders who were with Kim Il-sung before he ascended to power.[22] He had been reportedly critical of Kim Il-sung's son, Kim Jong-il.[22] Nevertheless, KCNA called him the "closest and finest revolutionary comrade-in-arms" of Kim Il-sung and his death "a painful, big loss to our party and people".[3]

• Kim Il (1964). "On the People's Economic Development Plan for 1968 for Carrying on More Succesfully [sic] Economic Construction and Defence Upbuilding, in Face of the Obtaining Situation". Korea Today. (Supplement). No. 145. OCLC 122429262.
• — (1970). "Speech by First Vice-Premier Kim Il [Speeches at the Pyongyang Rally Marking the 'Day of Struggle Against U.S. Imperialism" (June 25, 1970)]". People of Asia: Unite and Drive the U.S. Agressors Out of Asia!. Peking: Foreign Languages Press. pp. 33–51. OCLC 204899.
• — (1974). On the Summing Up of the Implementation of the "Theses on the Socialist Rural Question in Our Country" Set Forth by the Respected and Beloved Leader Comrade Kim Il Sung and the Future Tasks: Report. Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House. OCLC 8344966.
• Kim Il; et al. (1981). Twenty-year-long Anti-Japanese Revolution Under the Red Sunrays: June 1926 – August 1931. 1. Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House. OCLC 873742698.
• —; et al. (1982). Twenty-year-long Anti-Japanese Revolution Under the Red Sunrays: September 1931 – February 1936. 2. Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House. OCLC 914716941.
• —; et al. (1984). Twenty-year-long Anti-Japanese Revolution Under the Red Sunrays: February 1936 – October 1938. 3. Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House. OCLC 923269976.
• —; et al. (1986). Twenty-year-long Anti-Japanese Revolution Under the Red Sunrays: November 1938 – August 1940. 4. Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House. OCLC 812696881.
• —; et al. (1988). Twenty-year-long Anti-Japanese Revolution Under the Red Sunrays: August 1940 – August 1945. 5. Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House. OCLC 812696872.