How did Kim Hong-il die?
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The death of Kim Jong-il was reported by North Korean state television news on 19 December 2011. The presenter Ri Chun-hee announced that he had died on 17 December at 8:30 am of a massive heart attack while travelling by train to an area outside Pyongyang. Reportedly, he had received medical treatment for cardiac and cerebrovascular diseases. During the trip though, he was said to have had an advanced acute myocardial infarction, complicated with a serious heart shock. However, it was reported by South Korean media in December 2012 that he had died in a fit of rage over construction faults at a crucial power plant project.
Death and state funeral of Kim Jong-il
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In an August 2008 issue of the Japanese newsweekly "Shūkan Gendai", Waseda University professor Toshimitsu Shigemura, an authority on the Korean Peninsula, claimed that Kim Jong-il died of diabetes in late 2003 and had been replaced in public appearances by one or more stand-ins previously employed to protect him from assassination attempts. In a subsequent best-selling book, "The True Character of Kim Jong-il", Shigemura cited apparently unnamed people close to Kim's family along with Japanese and South Korean intelligence sources, claiming they confirmed Kim's diabetes took a turn for the worse early in 2000 and from then until his supposed death three and a half years later he was using a wheelchair. Shigemura moreover claimed a voiceprint analysis of Kim speaking in 2004 did not match a known earlier recording. It was also noted that Kim Jong-il did not appear in public for the Olympic torch relay in Pyongyang on 28 April 2008. The question had reportedly "baffled foreign intelligence agencies for years".
Kim Jong-il
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Hong Il-chon (, born 1942) was the first wife of Kim Jong-il. She was the daughter of a soldier who died during the Korean War. In the early 1960s, Kim Il-sung, father of Kim Jong-il, introduced her to his son and handpicked her to marry him in 1966. Her only daughter is named Kim Hye-gyong, born in 1968, and is the first child of Kim Jong-il. They divorced in 1969.
Hong Il-chon
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North Korean State media did not report Jong-il's death until 51 hours after it occurred, apparently due to the political jockeying and discussions that surrounded the official version of Jong-il's legacy, as well as agreeing upon the membership of the Funeral Committee of Kim Jong-il. On the morning of 19 December, all work units, schools, government agencies, and military personnel were informed of a major announcement to take place at noon. At noon, Ri Chun-hee, a Korean Central Television news anchor, clad in full black traditional Korean clothing, announced the death of Kim Jong-il. Ri had previously announced the death of Kim Il-sung in 1994. During the announcement, a portrait of a smiling, idealized image of Kim Jong-il was released, continuing the tradition of displaying official posthumous portraits of supreme leaders of North Korea after their death.
Death and state funeral of Kim Jong-il
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After Kim Jong-il's death and acting head of State Security U Tong-chuk's purge, Kim Won-hong appeared as one of Kim Jong-un's most trusted and supporting generals. He was made a Politburo member as well as the first minister of State Security in 25 years in April 2012. He was also elected member of the National Defence Commission. The South Korean government reported in February 2017 that Kim Won-hong was fired in mid-January after he was demoted to a one-star general from a four-star one on charges of corruption and abuse of power. He then disappeared from public view, but resurfaced in April 2017 for Day of the Sun celebrations, bearing the four-star insignia on his uniform.
Kim Won-hong
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With the death of O Jin-u on 25 February 1995, Kim Jong-il became the sole remaining living member of the Presidium (the highest body of the WPK when the Politburo and the Central Committee are not in session). While no member list of the WPK Central Military Commission (CMC, the highest party organ on military affairs) was published from 1993 to 2010, there were clear signs of movement in the military hierarchy during 1995. For the WPK's 50th anniversary, Kim Jong-il initiated a reshuffling of the CMC (and the military leadership in general) to appease the old guard and younger officials. He did not reshuffle the WPK Central Committee or the government, however, and during the 1990s the changes to its membership were caused mostly by its members dying of natural causes. Beginning in 1995, Kim Jong-il favored the military over the WPK and the state. Problems began to mount as an economic crisis, coupled with a famine in which at least half a million people died, weakened his control of the country. Instead of recommending structural reforms Kim began to criticize the WPK's lack of control over the economy, lambasting its local and provincial branches for their inability to implement central-level instructions. At a speech celebrating the 50th anniversary of Kim Il-sung University, he said: "The reason why people are loyal to the instructions of the Central Committee is not because of party organizations and workers, but because of my authority." Kim Jong-il said that his father had told him to avoid economics, claiming that it was better left to experts. After this speech, the WPK's responsibility to control the economy was given to the Administrative Council (the central government). By late 1996 Kim Jong-il concluded that neither the WPK nor the central government could run the country, and began shifting control to the military.
On 8 July 1997, the three-year mourning period for Kim Il-sung ended. Later that year, on 8 October, Kim Jong-il was appointed to the newly established office of General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea. There was considerable discussion by foreign experts of why Kim Jong-il was appointed General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, instead of succeeding his father as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea. In a clear breach of the WPK charter, Kim Jong-il was appointed WPK General Secretary in a joint announcement by the 6th Central Committee and the CMC rather than elected by a plenum of the Central Committee. Although it was believed that Kim Jong-il would call a congress shortly after his appointment (to elect a new WPK leadership), he did not. The WPK would not be revitalized organizationally until the 3rd Conference in 2010. Until then, Kim Jong-il ruled as an autocrat; only in WPK institutions considered important were new members and leaders appointed to take the place of dying officials. The 10th Supreme People's Assembly convened on 5 September 1998, amended the North Korean constitution. The amended constitution made the National Defense Commission (NDC), previously responsible for supervising the military, the highest state organ. Although the new constitution gave the cabinet and the NDC more independence from WPK officials, it did not weaken the party. Kim Jong-il remained WPK General Secretary, controlling the Organization and Guidance Department (OGD) and other institutions. While the central WPK leadership composition was not renewed at a single stroke until 2010, the WPK retained its important role as a mass organization.
Workers' Party of Korea
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Kim Hong-il (23 September 1898 – 8 August 1980) was a Korean independence activist and a general of the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Korean War, who later became a diplomat and politician in South Korea. Born in North Pyongan, he did his early schooling in China and Korea, and had a brief career as a teacher before his connections with the nascent Korean independence movement led to his imprisonment. He fled into exile in China in 1918, and served in the Kuomintang's National Revolutionary Army from 1926 to 1948, following which he moved to the newly-independent South Korea to join the Republic of Korea Army. He commanded South Korea's I Corps during the first year of the Korean War, and was then sent to Taipei as South Korea's ambassador to the Republic of China, which by then had retreated to Taiwan. His assignment there ultimately lasted nine years. He returned to South Korea in 1960 following the April Revolution which ended the rule of Syngman Rhee, and served briefly as Minister of Foreign Affairs under the Park Chung-hee junta. He ran for the National Assembly, first unsuccessfully in 1960 and 1963, and was then elected in 1967 and became a major figure in the opposition New Democratic Party.
Kim Hong-il (general)
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On 7 March 1976, it was announced that he had died when his car was crushed by a truck. Many suspected that this was not an accident, and some blamed Kim Jong Il, who by that time was not powerful enough to simply order Nam be killed. Others said that it was done by Kim Il Sung. Nam Il’s son, who lived in the Soviet Union, visited North Korea and attempted to investigate, but Pang Hak Se told him to go home and stop interfering in affairs which did not concern him.
Nam Il
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Hong's career took off in earnest after the 2011 death of Kim Jong-il, the country's leader, and the succession of Kim Jong-un. Hong was number 126 on the funeral committee list of Kim Jong-il. Since 2012, he has accompanied Kim on the occasion of various rocket test launches, and on on-the-spot guidance tours since the beginning of 2013. , Hong is an alternate member of the Central Committee of the WPK.
Hong Sung-mu
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Kim died at his home in Hyochang-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul on 8 August 1980. He was survived by his wife Min Gyeong-ran and three sons. Although a public funeral had been planned, in the end Kim's family decided to hold a private funeral at their home, followed by a procession to the Seoul National Cemetery where he was buried. Pastor Kyung-Chik Han of Young Nak Presbyterian Church, the church of which Kim had been a member, presided over the funeral. Roughly 1,500 people visited the family home to pay their respects, including Chun Doo-hwan, United States Forces Korea commander John A. Wickham Jr., and fellow independence activist .
Kim Hong-il (general)
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Kim's first wife, Hong Il-chon, was the daughter of a martyr who died during the Korean War. She was handpicked by his father and married to him in 1966. They have a girl called Kim Hye-kyung, who was born in 1968. Soon, they divorced in 1969.
Kim Jong-il