Kim Yong-ju (; 1920 – 14 December 2021) was a North Korean politician and the younger brother of

Kim Il-sung Kim Il-sung (; , ; born Kim Song-ju, ; 15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was a North Korean politician and the founder of North Korea, which he ruled from the country's establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of ...

, who ruled

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

from 1948 to 1994. Under his brother's rule, Kim Yong-ju held key posts including Politburo member in the

Workers' Party of Korea The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) is the founding and sole ruling party of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea. Founded in 1949 from the merger of the Workers' Party of North Korea and the Workers' Party ...

(WPK) during the 1960s and early 1970s, but he fell out of favour in 1974 following a power struggle with

Kim Jong-il Kim Jong-il (; ; ; born Yuri Irsenovich Kim;, 16 February 1941 – 17 December 2011) was a North Korean politician who was the second supreme leader of North Korea from 1994 to 2011. He led North Korea from the 1994 death of his father Ki ...

. From 1998 until his death in 2021, he held the ceremonial position of Honorary Vice President of the

Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly The Supreme People's Assembly (SPA; ) is the unicameral legislature of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), commonly known as North Korea. It consists of one deputy from each of the DPRK's 687 constituencies, elected to five-year ...

(SPA), North Korea's parliament.

Biography

Kim Yong-ju was born to

Kim Hyong-jik Kim Hyong-jik (Korean: 김형직; 10 July 1894 – 5 June 1926) was a Korean independence activist during Japanese rule. He was the father of the North Korean founder Kim Il-sung, the paternal grandfather of Kim Jong-il, and a great-g ...

and Kang Pan-sok in

Taedong County Taedong County is a ''kun'' (county) in South P'yŏngan province, North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula ...

in 1920, eight years after his elder brother

. When Kim was three years old, his family moved to southern

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...

. After graduating from the economics department at

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

in 1945, where he also took a deep interest in

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...

,Hwang Jang Yop's Memoirs (2006) Kim Yong-ju joined the

. His rise through the party's echelons was rapid; from the 1950s to the 1960s he was chief cadre (1954), vice-director (1957) and finally director (1960) of the WPK Organization and Guidance Department. He was appointed member of the WPK Central Committee at the Party's 4th Congress in 1961. In 1966, he was promoted to Organizing Secretary of the WPK Central Committee. In 1967, he proposed to his brother the " Ten Principles for the Establishment of the One-Ideology System" (whose first principle was: "We must give our all in the struggle to unify the entire society with the revolutionary ideology of the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung"), which were published only in 1974.''Ten Principles for the Establishment of the One-Ideology System'', Columbia Law School website In 1972, he represented North Korea in secret negotiations with

Park Chung-hee Park Chung-hee (, ; 14 November 1917 – 26 October 1979) was a South Korean politician and army general who served as the dictator of South Korea from 1961 until his assassination in 1979; ruling as an unelected military strongman from 1961 ...

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government i ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. The discussions led to the signing of the

July 4th North–South Korea Joint Statement July is the seventh month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and is the fourth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. It was named by the Roman Senate in honour of Roman general Julius Caesar in 44 B.C., it being the mont ...

by Kim and his South Korean counterpart

Lee Hu-rak Lee Hu-rak (23 February 1924 – October 31, 2009) was a South Korean politician, diplomat and the Director of the Korea Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) of South Korea from 1970 to 1973. In 1972, during his time as Director of the KCIA, ...

establishing agreed preconditions for potential

Korean reunification Korean reunification () is the potential reunification of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea into a single Korean sovereign state. The process towards reunification was started by the June 15th North–South ...

. By 1970, when he was elected WPK Politburo member, Kim Yong-ju was widely believed to be Kim Il-sung's successor."The Losers in N.Korea's Ruling Family", ''Chosun Ilbo'', 17 February 2011. He was also elected to the top and the SPA Presidium in 1972. However, at the same time Kim Il-sung started grooming his own son

to be his designated successor, and a power struggle erupted. It was the period when the WPK was focusing ideologically on Kim Il-sung's ''

Juche ''Juche'' ( ; ), officially the ''Juche'' idea (), is the state ideology of North Korea and the official ideology of the Workers' Party of Korea. North Korean sources attribute its conceptualization to Kim Il-sung, the country's founder and f ...

''; while Kim Jong-il actively stood for this process, Kim Yong-ju, having studied in the Soviet Union, supported a more classical view of

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

and was not fond of the extensive personality cult built around his brother. This played to Kim Jong-il's advantage: Kim Yong-ju was more and more marginalized, his key allies

Kim To-man Kim To-man was a faction member of the Kapsan Faction, and the Director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department (PAD) of North Korea, but removed from office by Kim Il-sung. Career Kim To-man was a faction member of the Kapsan Faction, whos ...

(director of propaganda) and (director of international liaison) were removed, and he himself was finally attacked by Kim Il-sung. After a

Central Committee Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party organizations, the ...

plenum in February 1974, Kim Jong-il was granted the position of

heir apparent An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...

and Kim Yong-ju was demoted to vice-premier. Kim Yong-ju completely disappeared from the limelight until 1993, when he was called back to

Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populat ...

by Kim Il-sung to serve as one of North Korea's vice presidents, a ceremonial position with no real power. Kim Yong-ju was appointed Honorary Vice-President of the Presidium of the

Supreme People's Assembly The Supreme People's Assembly (SPA; ) is the unicameral legislature of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), commonly known as North Korea. It consists of one deputy from each of the DPRK's 687 constituencies, elected to five-year ...

in 1998. In 2012, he was awarded the

Order of Kim Jong-il The Order of Kim Jong-il () is a North Korean order named after Kim Jong-il, the former leader of North Korea. It is the highest order of North Korea, along with the Order of Kim Il-Sung, and only second to one honorary title, the Hero of Labour ...

. He was also a recipient of the

Order of Kim Il-sung The Order of Kim Il-sung () is the highest order of North Korea, along with the Order of Kim Jong-il, and only second to one honorary title, the Hero of Labour. The order, named after the country's first leader Kim Il-sung, was instituted in 1 ...

and the title

Hero of the Republic Hero of the Republic () is a North Korean honorific title. It was created on 30 June 1950 as Hero of the Korean People's Republic (). It was the first title created in the country. Despite having been created just five days after the Korean War ...

. His death in

at age 101 was announced by state media on 15 December 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Yong-Ju 1920 births 2021 deaths Date of birth missing Vice presidents of North Korea North Korean expatriates in the Soviet Union North Korean politicians Korean Marxists North Korean communists Moscow State University alumni Kim dynasty (North Korea) North Korean centenarians Members of the 5th Political Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea Members of the 6th Politburo of the Workers' Party of Korea Members of the 4th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea Members of the 5th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea Members of the 6th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea Men centenarians People from Pyongyang Recipients of the Order of Kim Il-sung Recipients of the Order of Kim Jong-il National Heroes of North Korea People from South Pyongan