7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7

Bush defeated Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis.

Reagan retired to his home in Los Angeles, where he wrote

his autobiography, An American Life, which was published

in 1990. In 1994, in a letter to the American people, Reagan

disclosed that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s

disease, a degenerative brain disorder. He died in 2004.

Kim il-sunG and Kim JonG il

Respectively (b. April 15, 1912, Man’gyo ̆ ndae, near P’yo ̆ ngyang, Korea

[now in North Korea]—d. July 8, 1994, P’yo ̆ ngyang); (b. Feb. 16, 1941,

Siberia, Russia, U.S.S.R.)

S

ince 1948, North Korea has been ruled by the

Communist leaders Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong

Il. Kim Il-sung was the nation’s premier from 1948 to 1972,

chairman of its dominant Korean Workers’ (Communist)

Party (KWP) from 1949, and president and head of state

from 1972 until his death in 1994. He was posthumously

granted the title “eternal president of the republic.” Kim

Jong Il succeeded his father as ruler of North Korea.

Kim Il-sung

Kim Il-sung (original name Kim Song Ju) was the son of

parents who fled to Manchuria in 1925 to escape the

Japanese rule of Korea. He joined the Korean guerrilla

resistance against the Japanese occupation in the 1930s

and adopted the name of an earlier legendary Korean guer-

rilla fighter against the Japanese. Kim was noticed by the

Soviet military authorities, who sent him to the Soviet

Union for military and political training. There he joined

the local Communist Party.

During World War II, Kim led a Korean contingent

as a major in the Soviet army. After the Japanese surren-

der in 1945, Korea was effectively divided between a