How did Kim Jong Il come to power?
Kim Jong-il was born in an army camp near Khabarovsk in the Soviet Union, where his father, Kim Il-sung, was an important figure among Korean Communist exiles. Kim was three years old when World War II ended and Kim Il-sung returned to Korea to take charge of the Communist apparatus in Pyongyang, in the Soviet-occupied northern half of Korea. The younger Kim’s brother, sister, and mother all died under mysterious circumstances, leaving Kim Jong-il as the sole successor to Kim Il-sung. After graduating in 1964, Kim Jong-il began his ascension through the ranks of the ruling Korean Worker’s Party, working first in the party’s elite Organization Department before being named a member of the Politburo in 1968. In 1969 he was appointed deputy director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department. The elder Kim had meanwhile remarried and had another son, Kim Pyong-il, sparking an intense rivalry between Kim Jong-il and his younger half-brother. It is unclear when Jong-il was chosen over Pyong
