including Kim, into join-
ing anti-Japanese soci-
eties, which in turn
triggered even greater op-
pression. In 1925, Kim
fled with his family to
Manchuria, where he
completed his education
and joined the Chinese
Communist Party. He
then participated in guer-
rilla activities for several
years until 1941, when Ja-
panese military action
forced him to retreat into
the Soviet Union. There
Kim was further edu-
cated and indoctrinated
at the Soviet party school
in Khabarosvsk, and he
joined the Red Army. His
wartime activities are un-
known, but by 1945 he
had risen to the rank of major and was as-
signed to accompany Soviet occupation
forces to Korea that October. He had also
adopted the name “Kim Il Sung” after a noted
anti-Japanese guerrilla.
Shortly after the war Korea was parti-
tioned: The Soviet Union maintained troops in
the northern half of the peninsula while the
United States occupied the south. Each
sphere of influence then went about installing
political regimes reflecting their respective
political philosophy. For North Korea, this
meant the creation of a Stalinist-style dicta-
torship with Kim Il Sung as premier. By the
time the North Korean People’s Republic was
established in September 1948, Kim had liqui-
dated or suppressed all political opposition
and grasped the reigns of power. He then
spent the next two years preparing for what
became a lifelong ambition: the unification of
both Koreas under his regime.
Kim’s Soviet sponsors withdrew from
North Korea in 1948, but beforehand they laid
the foundation for a large and modern mili-
tary establishment. By 1950, the North Korean
People’s Army numbered
around 120,000 frontline
troops equipped with
vast quantities of tanks,
heavy artillery, and other
offensive weapons. In
contrast, the United
States, which decamped
South Korea in 1949, had
set up the 65,000-man
strong Republic of Korea
(ROK) army as a constab-
ulary, with very few
heavy weapons. More-
over, as the political bat-
tle lines between East
and West solidified dur-
ing initial phases of the
Cold War, U.S. President
Harry S. Truman declared
that Korea lay outside
U.S. security interests.
This proved to be just
what Kim needed to hear. By May 1950, he
had counseled Soviet dictator Josef Stalin
about his intended conquest of South Korea
and assured him it would take about three
weeks after the first bullets were fired. After
some hesitation—Stalin feared a direct con-
frontation with America—he agreed to lend
political and logistical support. Apparently,
Kim did not see fit to inform his giant neigh-
bor, the newly founded People’s Republic of
China under Mao Tse-tung, about his inten-
tions until the very brink of war. Thereafter,
he continually—and masterfully—played the
two superpowers against one another in the
name of communist solidarity.
On June 25, 1950, North Korean forces
stormed across the 38th Parallel separating
the two Koreas. The communist forces en-
countered only scattered resistance, which
their heavily armed columns brushed aside,
and within 48 hours the South Korean capital
of Seoul was occupied. However, such overt
aggression signaled that the Cold War had
suddenly run a lot hotter, and President Tru-
man, backed by the United Nations, commit-KIMILSUNG
Kim Il Sung
Bettmann/Corbis