7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7creativity in literature and film, although the products
remained primarily propaganda tools. A well-known
film buff, Kim headed a movie studio before ascending
to the country’s leadership. It produced works celebrat-
ing socialist values, Kim Il-sung and his national policy
of self-reliance (juche), and, later, Kim Jong Il himself
and his “military first” (so ̆ngun cho ̆ngch’i) policy. As part of
his desire to create better films, in the late 1970s the
younger Kim had a South Korean film director, Shin
Sang-ok, and his wife, actress Choi Eun-hee, abducted
to the North, where they were pressed into service until
their 1986 escape.
After becoming North Korea’s leader, and with his
country facing a struggling economy and a famine, Kim
made moves toward amending North Korea’s long-standing
policy of isolationism. Throughout the late 1990s and the
early 21st century, Kim sought to improve ties with a
number of countries. In addition, he appeared to be abid-
ing by the terms of a 1994 agreement—called the Agreed
Framework—with the United States, in which North
Korea would dismantle its own nuclear program in return
for arranging for the construction by an outside party of
two nuclear reactors capable of producing electric power.
South Korea was the primary contractor on the project.
Kim halted testing of a long-range missile in 1999 after
the United States agreed to ease its economic sanctions
against North Korea, and in June 2000 Kim met with
South Korean leader Kim Dae Jung. In what was the first
summit between leaders of the two countries, an agree-
ment was reached to take steps toward reunification. Ties
were also established with Australia and Italy.
At the same time, however, the Agreed Framework
began falling apart in the face of North Korea’s demon-
strated reluctance to adhere to its terms. Relations with