All language subtitles for The.Dictators.Playbook.Series.1.Part.1.Kim.Il.Sung.720p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org

(male narrator)
In North Korea,
a nation is in mourning.

Their dictator for the past
48 years, Kim Il Sung is dead.

(Michael Madden)
For the North Koreans,
Kim Il Sung was a living god.

And these people were being told
that god was dead.

(Jean H. Lee)
They were shocked.

Because they had been raised
to think of him as a god,

they didn't know
that he was even mortal.

(narrator)
But the myth of Kim's divinity
concealed a darker truth.

Behind the facade was a brutal
ruler, whose regime

imprisoned, killed, and tortured
hundreds of thousands.

[loud applause]

(Natasha Ezrow)
Kim Il Sung created

an atmosphere of fear
and paranoia.

And everybody knew that they
needed to get in line.

[speaking
Korean]

He needed to have absolute
control over the people.

That means controlling
what they think,

where they work, what they eat.

(Natasha Ezrow)
There's no country in the world
that exercises

more control and power over
its citizens than North Korea.

(narrator)
Ironically, the man
who turned his country

into a kind of prison,

spent much of his youth fighting
for Korean independence.

[loud cheering]

How did a man
who risked his life

for the freedom of his people
become their oppressor

and build one of the most
controlled societies on earth?

(woman)
Dictatorships have had
an incredible impact

in the past century.

These dictators ended up
learning from one another.

(man)
They're all different but
many use the same tactics.

(woman) The use of terror.
(man) Propaganda.

(woman) Control the elites.
Create an enemy.

Cult of personality.
(man) Use violence--

these are tools that dictators
use to stay in power.

[singing in Korean]

(male narrator)
The dictatorship Kim Il Sung
created in North Korea

still survives,
nearly 25 years after his death.

Kim created the system with
himself at the apex of power

that has lasted now
for almost 70 years.

It's been led
by the same family now

onto the 3rd generation,

and that's really an
extraordinary record.

[steady beat
of boots hitting the pavement]

(narrator)
Today's North Korea,
ruled by Kim Jong Un,

remains a tightly controlled
totalitarian state.

If you study Kim Jong Un's
ideology,

his strategy, his policy,

it is very similar to that of
his grandfather Kim Il Sung,

but with a more modern vent.

This is really one
of the most isolated

and strictly-regulated societies
in the world.

(narrator)
The seeds of
this extreme dictatorship

were sown
more than 100 years ago,

in a time of turmoil
for Korea.

In 1910, the country was
annexed by Japan.

Japan's growing empire wanted
Korea as an access point

to strike at its rivals,
China and Russia.

For Koreans, decades of
suffering were about to begin.

(Michael Madden)
The Japanese really put in
an ethnic cleansing program.

They changed the names
of Korean citizens,

and they basically tried to
eradicate the Korean language.

(narrator)
Those who resisted were
tortured and executed.

This is the world Kim Il Sung
is born into in 1912,

2 years after
the occupation began.

In a village just outside
the Korean city of Pyongyang

his parents name him
Kim Song Ju.

This is a kid
who was named Song-Ju,

which means pillar
of the country,

and so he was expected by his
parents to do something amazing.

(narrator)
Kim's mother and father
introduce him

to Christianity as a young boy.

(Bruce Cumings)
Pyongyang was the center
of Christianity in Korea.

It was known as
"The Jerusalem of the East."

(narrator)
Kim learns the organ and plays
it in his parents' church.

But just before
his 7th birthday,

his innocence is shattered
when his father is arrested

for protesting
against the Japanese occupation.

His father was arrested

during the 1919 independence
demonstrations

against the Japanese.

(narrator)
Kim's father is involved in

the local resistance movement
against Japanese oppression.

He and other protestors are
jailed and treated unmercifully.

(Jean H. Lee)
Kim was taken to see
his father in prison.

And that image of his father,
beaten, bruised, tortured,

completely emaciated,
was seared into his memory.

(narrator)
Watching his father suffer

instills in Kim
a hatred of the Japanese.

At 19, he commits his life
to his parents' cause.

He joins
a Communist guerilla group,

battling the Japanese Army
in the mountains

near the Korean-Chinese border.

(Bruce Cumings)
It's a very mountainous area,
extremely hot in the summer,

and bone-chilling cold
in the winter,

down to 40 degrees below zero--

the absolute
worst circumstances.

[loud & rapid
gunfire & explosions]

(narrator)
Kim's success in raids against
Japanese strongholds

establishes his reputation
as a heroic freedom fighter.

(Bruce Cumings)
He was a tall man for a Korean,
over 6 feet tall,

strong, smart, illusive,
a really remarkable guerilla.

[loud explosions]

(narrator)
By 24, Kim had risen
through the ranks,

leading hundreds of men

in crippling raids
on Japanese positions.

As his fame grows, he becomes
an almost legendary figure.

By the late 1930s, Kim Il Sung
is the most wanted

guerilla leader
fighting the Japanese.

They send divisions of men

into the mountains
to hunt him down.

in 1938 and '39, the Japanese

threw tens of thousands
of soldiers

against Kim Il Sung
and other guerillas.

These were pitched battles
on a major scale.

(narrator)
The Japanese killed thousands
of guerillas, but not Kim.

His fellow revolutionaries
give him the name Kim Il Sung,

meaning become the sun.

(Michael Madden)
And that's the name that stuck.

Without being a guerilla,
there is no Kim Il Sung.

He got pressed in
the southern part of Korea,

Europe, China, Russia, I mean
it was all over the place.

(narrator)
In the decades to come, Kim's
legend as a freedom fighter

will give rise to a defining
feature of his dictatorship.

The cult of personality
is the idea

that the leader possesses
superhuman qualities,

that the leader is a savior
to the nation.

Dictators build
personality cults

because it enables them
to mesmerize the public,

to ensure that
the public adores them.

Kim Il Sung was able to do it

on a level
that we've never seen before.

(narrator)
In time, Kim's days as a
guerilla leader will provide

the cornerstone of the cult of
personality built around him.

That was an enormous element of
his prestige and legitimacy

when he started out,
and it remains

the core legitimacy
of the regime.

(narrator)
But in the spring of 1941, Kim's
dictatorship is a long way off.

The guerilla movement has been
crushed by the Japanese.

Kim and his guerilla fighters
are forced to flee.

They take refuge
in the last safe place left--

the Soviet Union.

The Soviet army embraces Kim for
his resistance to the Japanese.

They make him captain

and put him in charge
of some 160 Korean guerillas.

Kim and his guerillas train for
action against the Japanese.

But in June 1941, Germany
invades the Soviet Union

forcing the country to defend
its western borders.

[loud explosions]

Kim finds himself sidelined
in the Soviet Far East.

While waiting for action,

he closely observes
their iron-fisted leader.

(Michael Madden)
Kim Il Sung was a student
of Joseph Stalin.

He had immense respect
for Joseph Stalin.

(narrator)
Kim has begun a common stage

in the development
of many dictators.

(Natasha Ezrow)
Dictators learn from each other
all the time about

how they rise to power, about
how to deal with opponents,

about how you maintain a
dictatorship for decades on end.

So for many dictators, Joseph
Stalin is actually a role model.

(narrator)
Stalin used his own
cult of personality

to secure his position
and transform the Soviet Union

into an industrial
and military powerhouse.

[speaking in Russian]

(Natasha Ezrow)
He cultivated an image that he
was the father of the nation,

that he was a strong leader.

But he also was really adept at
using fear to insure loyalty.

So for anyone that wanted
to learn from Stalin,

they learned quite a bit about
the level of brutality

that was needed, particularly
in the beginning of the regime

to ensure mass compliance.

(narrator)
More than 500 miles from home,

Kim seems light-years away
from using such tactics.

But with World War II
coming to an end,

things are about to change.

[extremely loud explosions]

While Kim is sidelined
in the Soviet Far East,

the allies crush
Hitler's armies in Germany.

Sensing an oppportunity,
Joseph Stalin declares war

on Kim's sworn enemy,
Japan.

Along with the United States,

the Soviets drive the Japanese
from Korea.

Kim's dream
since he was 7 years old,

to see a Korea free
from Japanese occupiers,

has finally been realized.

But there's a complication.

The Soviets came in
from the north

and the Americans came in
from the south,

and they agreed to divide the
peninsula at the 38th parallel.

(narrator)
Korea is now divided and
controlled by 2 foreign powers.

In the north, the Soviets
need Koreans they can trust

to help stabilize
their occupation.

They recruit Kim
and send him home to Korea.

His years of exile are over.

He was brought to Pyongyang
and installed by the Soviets

as their man in Pyongyang.

He was somebody that they saw
could really carry out

some of the Soviet objectives.

(narrator)
The Soviets appoint Kim
to a key position,

Deputy Commandant in Pyongyang.

He acts as a liaison between
Soviet occupying forces

and local Koreans.

It's his first taste
of political power,

and his ambition kicks in.

He begins to envision himself
as the one man

who can bring North and South
Korea back together again,

and sets his sights on
the leadership of the nation.

(Jean H. Lee)
But what motivated him,
I mean, it was

personal ambition plus the
mission to build a country.

He was motivated by a desire
to make this country intact.

(narrator)
But if Kim is going to become

the ruler
of Soviet-controlled Korea,

he'll have to convince them
he's the man for the job.

Kim Il Sung's greatest strength
was his charisma

and his interpersonal skills.

I think that helped him
enormously.

(narrator)
Kim gets a chance to use these
skills in the fall of 1945

when resentment against
the Soviets begins to build.

Many Koreans feel they've traded
one occupier for another.

They want a Korea free
from outside interference.

When Korea was occupied
by the Soviet Union,

there was a lot of turmoil,
a lot of uncertainty

about the political direction
of the country.

The Soviets put communists
in control

and a lot of people
resented that.

There came to be quite a bit of
anti-communist sentiment,

particularly among
a lot of young people.

(narrator)
November 23, 1945,

in Sinuiju, a city
on the border with China,

Soviet and Korean forces
cracked down

on an anti-communist
student protest.

Sinuiju is a mess, hundreds
of people were injured

and there's estimates
that 100 students died.

(narrator)
Student protests
against the violence

erupt across North Korea.

The Soviets send Kim to Sinuiju

in a last-ditch attempt
to restore order.

It's the opportunity
he's been waiting for.

Kim was able to calm things down
and to say

the communists
are not your enemy,

we have to work together
to create

a system for everyone,
and it really helped.

He was a natural hands-on
leader, and I think

maybe at Sinuiju that was
first demonstrated.

(narrator)
Prominent Soviets are impressed

by Kim's skill
in diffusing the uprising.

[loud applause]

They put him in charge
of the puppet government

they've installed
in North Korea.

(Bruce Cumings)
In February 1946,

he became head of the first
national government

and it's really from that time
on that we can see

Kim Il Sung's dominance
of the North Korean system.

(narrator)
Kim the guerilla fought
for his country's liberation

for nearly 2 decades;
Kim the politician

has taken just 4 months
to become its ruler.

But he's still
under the Soviet umbrella.

To govern the country
on his own,

he needs to show the Soviets
he can run

a successful communist country
that's loyal to them.

He can only do that if he has
the support of his people.

Kim turns to a tactic familiar
to many would-be dictators.

When dictators first take power,
they often try to get consent

by appealing to as many people
as possible,

trying to please the masses,

trying to ensure that they are
loyal to them.

They wouldn't want to incite
some sort of revolution.

The first way is that
they try to provide the public

with some kind of good
and service,

like access to education,
access to water, electricity.

They may make gas much cheaper,

they may be lowering taxes.

They want to ensure
that the masses feel

that there's a need
for this dictatorship.

(narrator)
To win his people over,
Kim makes a dramatic offer.

(Bruce Cumings)
Kim Il Sung announced
a land reform.

Peasants were given land free,

they got 3 chungbo,
which is a fairly small farm,

but one that would
sustain a family.

(narrator)
For the first time in centuries,

farmers can call the land
their own.

(Jean H. Lee)
Giving them control
over their land,

giving them a sense
of ownership again

after hundreds of years of
feudal rule, and then

these brutal 35 years of
Japanese occupation,

gave the Koreans
a sense of pride

and a vision of a new Korea.

(narrator)
Kim gives 2.4 million
acres of land

to more than 700,000 farmers
and their families.

(Charles K. Armstrong) That's a
huge boost to Kim's popularity.

Now you have maybe 70% of the
Korean population

which has directly, materially,

benefited from the policies
of the new regime.

So that was
a very effective tool

of getting popular consent
for Kim.

(narrator)
But Kim still needs consent

from a group even more important
than the masses.

(Natasha Ezrow)
The elites are the biggest
threat to any dictator.

They have to make sure
that this elite group

is unified and incredibly loyal.

If they can't do that, they are
at risk of being overthrown.

(narrator)
After using the carrot
with the masses,

Kim uses the stick
with the elites--

high ranking communists and
other rivals he doesn't trust.

Kim was very shrewd
in dealing with his enemies.

He sent them to South Korea--
people who had

served the Japanese,
military officers,

and other Korean communists--
all potential rivals.

(narrator)
Over the next 2 years,
Kim takes one more step

to show the Soviets he's capable
of ruling the country

without their help--
by proving he can defend it.

Building from a core group

of some 200 of his
old guerrilla comrades

and amasses an army
of more than 60,000 soldiers.

[Kim speaking Korean]

(narrator)
By 1948, the Soviets
are convinced Kim

has a firm hold on the country.

They begin to pull out.

For the first time
in almost 5 decades,

North Korea is free
from foreign control...

and Kim is
the undisputed leader.

He finally has the power
to go for his ultimate goal,

one shared by many
in his country--

unifying North and South Korea.

Kim wanted the peninsula unified
as it had been

for thousands of years before,
under a single government.

Kim Il Sung saw himself
as the great unifier.

A unified Korea
without foreign troops.

(narrator)
In the summer of 1949,
Kim sees his chance.

The U.S. has pulled most
of its troops from South Korea.

Its borders are now defended by
60,000 South Korean soldiers.

When Kim doubles his army
to 120,000 men,

the South Koreans are
outnumbered 2 to 1.

[loud applause]

[Kim speaks Korean]

[extremely loud explosions
and machine-gun fire]

(narrator)
One year later,
Kim invades South Korea.

[extremely loud explosions
and gunfire]

Kim's army steamrolls the
outnumbered South Korean forces

and pins them into a small
corner of the country.

He believes his dream
of a unified Korea

is about to come true...

But Kim's made
a major miscalculation.

What he did not seem
to understand was that

South Korea had become important
to the United States.

(narrator)
Worried about the global spread
of communism,

U.S. President Harry Truman
has appealed to the UN

for support
in defending South Korea.

If the United Nations yields
to the forces of aggression,

no nation will be safe
or secure.

(narrator)
September, 1950.

[extremely loud explosions]

With Kim on the verge
of victory, a UN force

led by American troops carries
out a daring counterattack...

[extremely loud explosions
and machine-gun fire]

...and pushes
Kim's army north.

Kim's shattered forces retreat

across the 38th parallel
into North Korea.

The UN forces
under American leadership

came very close
to wiping out Kim's regime.

(narrator)
Kim's decision to make war
on the Korean peninsula

has pushed his forces
to the brink of disaster.

(narrator)
October 1, 1950.

Kim Il Sung's army is trapped

in a small corner of North Korea
by U.S. led UN forces.

Desperate for help, Kim
convinces China's leader,

Chairman Mao, to support
his communist cause.

[extremely loud explosions]

(narrator)
Three weeks later.

[extremely loud
machine-gun fire]

Mao sends
more than 250,000 troops

across the Yalu River
into North Korea...

...and drive the U.S. back
toward the 38th parallel.

Not only does it save
Kim's forces from annihilation,

it resurrects his dream
of reunifying Korea.

But the U.S. strikes back
with a brutal new tactic.

(Bruce Cumings)
The U.S. began just basically
bombing everything...

...targeting schools,
hospitals--

it was just a brutal,
scorched-earth air campaign.

(Michael Madden)
Pyongyang was leveled.

Hamhung, level to the ground.
Wonsan, level to the ground.

Tens of thousands of people died
overnight.

And this is devastating.

(Charles K. Armstrong)
More tonnage of bombs was
dropped on North Korea,

than in all of the Pacific War

between the U.S. and Japan
during World War II.

(narrator)
The U.S. bombing exacts a heavy
toll on North Korean civilians.

20% of the nation,

nearly 2 million people,
lose their lives.

It was the most unrestrained
U.S. Air Force bombing campaign

in the 20th century.

It's a disaster
for the country... and for Kim.

(Bruce Cumings) He was in
a very deep pickle, because

he's the one who invaded the
South with a lot of promises,

and it brought a holocaust
upon his country.

(narrator)
July, 1953.

Almost 3 years after it began,

and in the wake
of the U.S. bombing,

the war ends in a cease-fire.

Its exhausted combatants end up
where they began,

straddling the 38th parallel.

It's an abject failure for Kim.

His dream of unifying the
country has been squashed.

North Korea has been bombed
into submission

with a 5th
of its population dead.

And there were many around him
who criticized him for that.

He was in a very weak positron
at that point

because of his reckless action.

(narrator)
But Kim has no intention
of ceding his leadership.

He begins to take a series
of steps that will insure

his hold on the country
for years to come.

One of the first is
a classic move

from the dictator's playbook.

For any dictatorship, they have
to use force because they

need to project this image of
power, this image of control.

This image that if anyone tries
to threaten the regime,

they will be dealt with.

(narrator)
Kim immediately shifts
the blame for the War

from himself to his rivals,

publicly denouncing
12 senior communists

who had criticized
his handling of it.

(Charles K. Armstrong)
Kim's rivals were accused of

collaborating with the Americans
to sell out North Korea.

And they simply admitted
to the charges, and then

some went into exile,
others were executed.

(Jean H. Lee)
Kim Il Sung used purges,

executions, to send a message
to the elites and to the people,

that if they oppose him, that
they won't survive.

(narrator)
Like Stalin before him,

Kim takes out suspected
opponents--

2500 in just 4 years.

(Bruce Cumings)
He just cashiered his enemies.

What we can learn about Kim
from that particular period is

that he's a vicious, ruthless
leader who brooks no opposition.

(narrator)
Although his most dangerous
political enemies

are dealt with, Kim must
still convince the masses

he's not to blame for
their suffering during the War.

He relies on a tactic
that will become

a trademark of his regime.

(Natasha Ezrow)
Propaganda is the spread
of information

that benefits the regime.

Dictatorships need propaganda to

be able to control
people's thoughts.

They want to ensure that the
masses are loyal to the regime.

(narrator)
Kim uses a relentless stream
of propaganda to create

an alternate reality where
the U.S. is an imminent threat

to the safety of his people.

That bombing of North Korea
has been a memory

kept alive to demonstrate
how savage the Americans are.

[speaking Korean]

(narrator)
It's a reinvention of history--

one that will be repeated
again and again

until millions of Koreans
believe it.

[Kim Kil Sun speaks Korean]

(narrator)
Kim's propaganda campaign
continually reminds the people

that he's the father
of the nation.

One hundred million books
are published

to celebrate his greatness.

But in order to fully seed
his cult of personality,

Kim needs to go out
among the people.

He travels across the country to
spread his message in person.

(Charles K. Armstrong)
Kim really was

a powerful personality,
and someone

who was able to connect
with the ordinary person.

(Bruce Cumings)
I compare him to Muhammad Ali
in the sense

that he would wade into a crowd

as if everybody loved him
and press the flesh.

It was a) part of his
megalomania,

b) part of demonstrating
to the Korean people

that he was a hands-on leader.

He just bathed in the adulation
of his own people

and seemed to think it was
entirely deserved.

(narrator)
By the late 1950s,

Kim's cult of personality
is flourishing.

But his public confidence
contrasts

with a growing paranoia
behind closed doors.

(Fathali Moghaddam)
Paranoia is a very dominant
trait in dictators,

it's a tendency that leads
to projection

of their own
insecurities and suspicions.

And their motivation becomes one

of controlling every aspect
of society.

(narrator)
In his drive for control,
Kim attempts to completely

insulate the country
from outside influences.

He locks down all of its media
and information sources.

(Charles K. Armstrong)
Both information internally

and also information going
in and out of the country.

to keep the people aware of
only the kinds of information

that the regime
wants them to know.

(Natasha Ezrow)
They are actually forced
to listen to the radio,

which is only one channel
all day long.

They can turn it down,
but they can not change it.

So all day long they are hearing
how great Kim Il Sung is.

(narrator)
Kim's obsession with his
peoples' loyalty intensifies.

He keeps them in line with
a mandatory weekly program

he calls,
"Self-Criticism Sessions."

[Kim Kil Sun speaks Korean]

(Natasha Ezrow)
Everybody was spying
on one another.

And everybody knew that they
couldn't let

any sign of disloyalty
be visible to, to anyone.

(narrator)
By the early 1960s,

after nearly 2 decades
in power,

Kim's grip on the nation
has tightened,

but he still sees conspiracies
against him everywhere.

To quash dissent,
the regime makes

fear and insecurity
a part of daily life.

(Jean H. Lee)
A dictatorship needs to have
a culture of fear

in order to enforce a sense
of loyalty to the leader.

Fear of punishment is
always going to be

a part of a regime like this.

[speaking Korean]

[loud cheering]

(narrator)
By the mid 1960s,

Kim Il Sung has created
a culture of fear

that envelops
12 million North Koreans.

His parades demonstrate
his power over the people.

But it's not enough.

Kim enforces their loyalty
through the secret police,

nearly 50,000 strong,
who monitor their daily lives.

The secret police is important
to the dictatorship because

they need to know who the
opponents are of the regime.

They need to get access to
really good information.

(narrator)
To identify threats,

the secret police helps carry
out a highly invasive plan.

Around the country agents gather

personal information
on every individual.

The data is used to reinforce
a rigid caste system,

which ranks everyone into
3 categories based on loyalty.

Within the 3 categories,
there are

somewhere between 75 and 95
subdivisions of the population.

This determines what kind
of work you're going to do,

what kind of education
you're going to have,

where you're going to live.

(Charles K. Armstrong) Only the
most politically reliable people

are allowed to live in
the capital of Pyongyang.

And the most unreliable people
are out in the countryside.

(narrator)
The caste system weeds out
enemies of the state.

The worst of
the perceived offenders

are sentenced to gulags.

[speaking Korean]

One of the harsh realities

of North Korean detention
facilities is,

they will be subjected to
torture.

Sexual abuse,
forced medical procedures.

They keep the prisoners
at a nutritional minimum

so they don't die because they
want to prolong the suffering.

[speaking Korean[

(narrator)
During the 1960s,

Kim's regime executes more than
6000 political enemies.

As the end of the decade nears,

a culture of fear has permeated
all corners of the country.

The regime now controls even

the most basic aspects
of daily life.

[Kim Kil Sun speaking Korean]

(narrator)
The government even dictates
how much each person eats,

rationing consumption through
its food distribution policy.

[speaking Korean]

[loud cheering]

(narrator)
Kim's indoctrination
of his people

reaches its pinnacle
in mass rallies

where they honor him
as their Supreme Leader.

(Natasha Ezrow)
The extent of the
cult of personality

is something like
we've never seen before.

It borders on fanaticism,

it's complete socialization
of everybody.

Every single person in this
regime is indoctrinated.

(narrator)
Indoctrination and fear
help explain

why ordinary Koreans
support the regime.

But there are other forces
at work, including history.

For the past 600 years
North Koreans

have never known
real political freedom.

They were either ruled by
absolute Korean monarchs

or the Japanese Emperor.

[speaking
Korean]

(narrator)
Kim also exploits

an intrinsic value of
traditional Korean society.

(Jean H. Lee) He tapped into a
very Korean trait, which is
conformism--

understanding where your place
in society is

and trying not to stray outside
that place

that's dictated for you.

So Koreans don't want to go
outside the group,

they want to do
what the group is doing.

(narrator)
By the early 1970s,

Kim's cult of personality
in North Korea is unshakeable.

In 25 years he's gone
from Soviet puppet

to unassailable leader.

But Kim's still haunted
by one question--

how can he ensure his regime
continues after his death?

(Charles K. Armstrong) Kim knows
he's not going to live forever.

He saw what happened in the
Soviet Union after Stalin died,

confusion in the political
leadership, took the country

in what Kim thought was
the wrong direction.

And he didn't want to have
that happen in North Korea.

(narrator)
He settles on a rare
and unconventional plan

for a communist dictator
approaching the end of his rule.

(Charles K. Armstrong)
He looked to his family.

After all, who do you trust more

than the people within
your own immediate family?

(narrator)
Kim believes succession is
the only way

to guarantee his regime's
survival when he's gone,

even though
it's never been attempted

in the communist world before.

He turns to his eldest son,
33-year-old Kim Jong Il,

who's been serving as head

of the regime's Propaganda
and Agitation Department.

Kim Il Sung really grooms
his son to be successor.

He places him in increasingly
important positions

within the party structure.

(Michael Madden)
One of the key projects

that Kim Jong Il develops
is venerating his father.

Turning his father
into the God figure.

(narrator)
It's all part of Kim Il Sung's
succession plan.

To implement it, he deifies
himself and his son,

and in the process,
raises his cult of personality

to an entirely new level.

(Natasha Ezrow)
The Kim regime was able to
create a complete religion

and myth around the leadership,
that they were divine.

And the myth started from

the way that they portrayed
Kim's childhood.

That he was this idyllic
character, and as he grew up,

that he single-handedly
defeated the Japanese.

(narrator)
Kim's son, Kim Jong Il,
is venerated as well.

He was born in a Siberian
village during World War II,

but state propaganda says
the birth occurred

on a mystical mountain,
Mount Paektu.

(Jean H. Lee)
All Koreans think of that place

as the birth
of the Korean people.

And so to say that you were
descended from Mount Paektu

means that you've got like
a godlike right to rule.

(narrator)
During the 1970s,

along with countless pieces
of art and films

glorifying Kim and his family,

34,000 monuments are
erected in their names.

They are now considered gods
in North Korea.

Kim is satisfied;
his succession is in place.

And he can kind of step back.

From that point onward
Kim Jong Il is really doing

a lot of the day-to-day
governing of the country.

(narrator)
In the 1980s,

with his son basically
running the government,

Kim Il Sung attends
to his own needs.

By some estimates, Kim caused

more than 200,000 deaths
in his gulags,

but he's obsessed with
prolonging his own life to 120.

To do it, Kim has set up the
Longevity Research Institute.

Its only mission is
to keep him alive.

They used to gather men

that were of the same height
and weight

and age as Kim Il Sung, try
medical treatments on them.

15 North Koreans were fitted
with pacemakers

to make sure the pacemakers were
gonna work

when they went to install
the pacemaker on Kim Il Sung.

(narrator)
Kim orders his doctors
to give him

dozens of blood transfusions
from healthy young men.

He spends hours
around young children,

hoping to absorb
some of their energy.

Handlers polish his rice grains
so he doesn't get a bad one.

But not even Kim
can cheat death.

On July 8, 1994,

Kim Il Sung dies
of a heart attack

at 82.

(Jean H. Lee)
Some people said

I felt sadder at his death then
I did my own father's death.

So it shows you
how deeply entrenched

that sense of loyalty was
to Kim Il Sung.

(narrator)
But there are other reasons
for the people's tears.

(Natasha Ezrow)
They needed to show that
they were in genuine mourning.

And if they didn't prove
to the regime that they were

in mourning enough,
they could be arrested,

they could be tortured,
they could be killed.

(narrator)
Around the world, political
experts watch and wait,

suspecting Kim's regime
will crumble without him.

It teeters... but survives.

The strength of
the dictatorship Kim forged

passes another test in 2011

when it survives
the death of Kim Jong Il.

Once again, power is
successfully transferred

from father to son.

[loud cheering & chanting]

Today, under Kim Jong Un,

the regime has fortified itself

through the emulation
of its founder.

[loud cheering & chanting]

(Bruce Cumings)
Kim Jong Un's a clone
of Kim Il Sung.

His haircut is a classic late
1940's Kim Il Sung,

they've fattened him up
so that he,

he looks big,
he looks like his grandfather.

(narrator)
Kim Il Sung's
cult of personality

has never gone away.

His presence is everywhere.

There are songs, there are
anthems, there are books,

there are stories,
there are statues,

there are posters everywhere--
you cannot escape it.

(narrator)
In the end,
Kim Il Sung did something

no other communist dictator
of the 20th Century

had pulled off--
he created a dynasty.

(Jean H. Lee)
By passing on leadership
of his country to his son,

he engineered
this hereditary succession.

We had never seen anything like
that in the communist world.

(narrator)
Ironically, after struggling
to free his people

from the abuses
of Japanese rule,

Kim Il Sung created
a system that brought

more suffering
to his people.

[speaking
Korean]

(narrator)
Today North Korea is
a nuclear state.

Despite ongoing talks, it has
not yet given up its weapons.

(Jean H. Lee)
The ramifications are
far more terrifying

than they were
under Kim Il Sung.

North Korea now has
the capability

to obliterate the region,
frankly,

with these nuclear weapons.

(narrator)
Kim Il Sung's dynasty has
outlasted 12 U.S. presidents

and entered its 8th decade.

But the question remains--

how long will his creation--

the world's most controlled
and isolated society... last?

(Charles K. Armstrong)
I think this regime can last
for quite some time to come.

We can't dismiss the possibility
that they could fall,

but I don't think we should
ever underestimate

how resilient and long-lasting
this regime has been

and can be in the future.

[orchestra plays in minor tones]

(man) To order "The Dictator's
Playbook" on DVD,

visit shopPBS.org
or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS.

This program is also available

on Amazon Prime Video.

[synthesizer fanfare]