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 ...

(16 February 1941/1942 – 17 December 2011) was the

Supreme Leader of North Korea The supreme leader () of North Korea is the ''de facto'' paramount leader of the Workers' Party of Korea, the state and the Korean People's Army. The title has not been written into the national constitution as a separate office, but it curren ...

from 1994 to 2011. According to North Korean sources, Kim Jong-il published some 890 works during a period of his career from June 1964 to June 1994. According to the

Korean Central News Agency The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) is the state news agency of North Korea. The agency portrays the views of the North Korean government for both domestic and foreign consumption. It was established on December 5, 1946 and now features onli ...

(KCNA), the number of works from 1964 to 2001 was 550. In 2000, it was reported that the

Workers' Party of Korea Publishing House The Workers' Party of Korea Publishing House (WPKPH, ) is the principal publishing house of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and one of the two main publishers in the country. It publishes magazines and books on politics, such as the works o ...

has published at least 120 works by Kim. In 2009, KCNA put the numbers as follows: Two collections exist, the ''Selected Works of Kim Jong-il'' (김정일선집) and the ''Complete Collection of Kim Jong-il's Works'' (김정일전집). Both contain forged works that Kim never wrote, included to give readers the impression that he was working with ideologically formulating the ''

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 ...

'' idea in his youth. In reality, Kim only sporadically talked about the topic. When he did, mentions were typically backdated. For instance, a speech published in 1984 called '' On Some Questions in Understanding the ''Juche'' Philosophy'' (주체철학의 이해에서 제기되는 몇 가지 문제에 대하여) is dated February of 1974 and contains a plea that "it would be advisable not to publish my talk for the present" in an effort to explain why it had not been published immediately. The ''Selected Works of Kim Jong-il (Enlarged Edition)'', whose publishing has continued posthumously, runs into volume 24 in Korean, and to volume 15 in English. Volumes three to eight were never published in English. The fact that new volumes are being added in such a peculiar order could also be an indication that the project is not a priority for the North Korean regime. The ''Complete Collection of Kim Jong-il's Works'' is currently in volume 41. The earliest work in this collection is from July 1952, when Kim would have been only 11 years old. Kim Jong-il did not enjoy speaking in public. That is why he chose to break with the tradition of New Year addresses delivered to live audiences that his father had. During Kim Jong-il's rule, New Year addresses were always published jointly in three newspapers – ''

Rodong Sinmun ''Rodong Sinmun'' (; ) is a North Korean newspaper that serves as the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea. It was first published on November 1, 1945, as ''Chŏngro'' (), serving as a communication channel ...

'', ''

Joson Inmingun ''Joson Inmingun'' ( ko, 조선인민군, ''Korean People's Army'') is the newspaper of Korean People's Army. It was first published on July 10, 1948. See also * List of newspapers in North Korea * Telecommunications in North Korea * Media of N ...

'', and '' Chongnyon Jonwi'' – instead. There is a "Kim Jong-il's Works Exhibition House" dedicated to his works in North Korea, holding 1,100 of his works and manuscripts. In his teens and university years, Kim Jong-il wrote poems – notably " O Korea, I will Add Glory to Thee" (조선아 너를 빛내리). Kim Jong-il also wrote song lyrics. Kim wrote particularly much on

the arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both ...

. For instance 22 out of 46 works in volume one of his ''Selected Works'' (1964–1969) are on the topic. His first truly major literary work was also on the theme, ''

On the Art of the Cinema ''On the Art of the Cinema'' () is a 1973 treatise by the North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. It is considered the most authoritative work on North Korean filmmaking. The book sets forth several original theories, which can be applied to the pr ...

'' (1973).

Bibliography

References

Works cited

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External links

Works of Kim Jong-il
at Publications of the DPRK

at

Korean Friendship Association The Korean Friendship Association (KFA, es, Asociación de Amistad con Corea) is a Spain-based friendship association with North Korea. The KFA was established in November 2000. It claims to have official representatives in 34 countries. The K ...

Audio excerpts
at Voice of Korea
Kim Jong-il
at the

Marxists Internet Archive Marxists Internet Archive (also known as MIA or Marxists.org) is a non-profit online encyclopedia that hosts a multilingual library (created in 1990) of the works of communist, anarchist, and socialist writers, such as Karl Marx, Friedrich En ...

{{Works by Kim Jong-il Bibliographies by writer Communist books