Kim Jong Il

Official biographers say Kim Jong-il's birth in a cabin on the slopes of Paektu Mountain in Japanese-occupied Korea on February 16, 1942 was foretold by a swallow and heralded by a double rainbow. When he was born, a new star appeared in the night sky.

Kim Jong-il's real name was Yuri Irsenovich Kim and he actually born in the village of Vyatskoye, near Khabarovsk, Russia on February 16, 1941.

His father, Kim Il-sung, commanded the 1st Battalion of the Soviet 88th Brigade.

North Korean biographies state that Kim Jong-il learned to walk at just three-weeks-old and he was talking at eight weeks.

Pyongyang 100th Year Kim Il Sung Birthday Celebrations 03.jpg: Photographed by Joseph Ferris III.

Instead of Christmas, North Koreans celebrate the birthday of Kim Jong Il’s mother Kim Jong Suk.

Kim Jong-il's 300-page book On the Art of the Cinema was published on April 11, 1973 and is considered a seminal work on the use of film propaganda in support of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea. According to Kim Jong-il, the purpose of cinema is not simply to entertain, but also to educate and inspire the masses to work towards the goals of the socialist revolution. He emphasizes the importance of developing a distinct North Korean cinematic style that reflects the revolutionary spirit of the country and its people. Every filmmaker in North Korea was forced to read it.

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

Kim Jong-il became supreme leader of North Korea on July 8, 1994 after the death of his father, Kim il-sung.

Kim Jong Il had a private library of 20,000 movies in a private movie theater beneath a Pyongyang bunker. This was despite a public prohibition of all foreign media.

Kim Jong Il kidnapped a well-respected movie director and forced him to make a North Korean Godzilla knock-off called Pulgasari.

He had a fondness for expensive cognac, platform shoes and lobster. While travelling across Russia by train, he had live lobsters air-lifted to him each day, which he ate with silver chopsticks.

Kim Jong Il had a longstanding fascination with pizza. In the 1990s, he flew in a team of Italian chefs to teach local cooks how to make the Italian dish. North Korea finally got its first pizzeria in 2009, thanks to Kim Jong-il’s obsession with the food.

Kim Jong-il in 2010. By babeltravel - Flickr: Kim Jong-il, Pyongyang, 

In 2011, an anti Kim Jong Il graffiti was found in Pyongyang. They locked down the entire city for three days.

Some of the many titles given to Kim Jong-il, include "Glorious General, Who Descended From Heaven," "Highest Incarnation of the Revolutionary Comradeship," "Amazing Politician," and "Dear Leader, Who is a Perfect Incarnation of the Appearance that a Leader Should Have."

In an official biography of Kim Jong-il the claim was made that the dear leader and the rest of the Kim family didn't need the toilet like the rest of us. In his memoir, the Aquariums of Pyongyang, Mr Kang writes: “[They] were perfect beings, untarnished by any base human function. I was convinced, as we all were, that neither of them urinated or defecated."

Kim Jong-il died of a suspected heart attack on December 17, 2011 at 8:30 a.m. while traveling by train to an area outside Pyongyang.

North Koreans who were not seen mourning over the death of Kim Jong-Il were sent to concentration camps for six months.

The North Korean song "Where Are You, Dear General?", supposedly written by Kim Jong-il. plays every morning at 6 a.m. through Pyongyang's loudspeakers.

Source Daily Telegraph