Premier Yong Il Kim of Korea, North

Kim is contemptible, maybe even evil, but he's not crazy, she says.

There are people who say Kim is not that different from a cult leader.

But despite his reputation as being very odd, some experts maintain Kim is quite rational.

Kim is believed to have been born in the far eastern region of the Soviet Union in 1941 or 1942.

But despite the hardships suffered by most Koreans, Kim was presumably surrounded by luxury and privilege throughout most of his childhood.

Kim had a reputation as a hard-partying playboy as a young man -- and reportedly still has an eye for the ladies.

Kim is thought to have been married three times -- although it's not clear if all were official -- and he is known to have three sons and at least one daughter.

Kim is also a huge film buff boasting a collection of as many as 20,000 films.

Irish PM to quit over payments scandalNATO chief: Afghan troop increase likelyMilitants hunted as calm retuns to BasraPressure on Bush to skip OlympicsBA sending misplaced T5 baggage to Milan Recruiting suicide bombers(2:50) London was lucky(2:36) Cars in London rigged as bombs(3:48) Second explosives-packed car foun(2:32) Soviet culture returns(3:47) This 2002 portrait of Kim is displayed at an entrance of the Foreign Ministry in Pyongyang.

In 1945, Kim was three or four years old (depending on his birth year) when World War II ended and Korea regained independence from Japan.

Throughout his schooling, Kim was involved in politics.

Kim joined the Workers' Party of Korea in July 1961.

Kim is also said to have received English language education at the University of Malta in the early 1970s, on his infrequent holidays in Malta as guest of Prime Minister Dom Mintoff.

The elder Kim had meanwhile remarried and had another son, Kim Pyong-il (named after Kim Jong-il's drowned brother.

Shortly after his graduation, Kim was appointed instructor and section chief to the Party Central Committee.

Between 1967–1969, Kim turned his attention to the military.

Kim was appointed vice-director of the Party Central Committee (PCC) in September 1970, and became an elected member of the PCC in October 1972.

During the late 1970s, Kim was involved in economic planning, including several campaigns to rapidly develop certain sectors of the economy.

On 24 December 1991, Kim was also named supreme commander of the North Korean armed forces.

Since Kim is not the president, he is not constitutionally required to hold elections to confirm his legitimacy and has not done so.

During a rare visit in 2006, Kim expressed admiration for China's rapid economic progress.

An Associated Press report said analysts believed Kim had been supporting moderates in the foreign ministry, while North Korea's powerful military was against so-called "Six-Party" negotiations with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States aimed towards ridding North Korea of nuclear weapons.

Unidentified South Korean government officials said Kim had undergone surgery after suffering a minor stroke and had apparently "intended to attend the 9 September event in the afternoon but decided not to because of the aftermath of the surgery.

The New York Times reported Kim was "very ill and most likely suffered a stroke a few weeks ago, but US.

Japan's Tokyo Shimbun on 15 September added that Kim is conscious "but he needs some time to recuperate from the recent stroke, with some parts of his hands and feet paralyzed.

Chairman Kim is now staying at the Bongwha State Guest House on the outskirts of Pyongyang.

Kim has several daughters, but given the highly patriarchal nature of the government it seems unlikely that any of them would be considered.

Under Kim Jong-il's leadership the army has seen its grip on power soar, with several senior generals developing major business interests as heads of military-dominated conglomerates.

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North Korea has rebuffed reports that leader Kim Jong-il is seriously ill, following his failure to appear at an important military parade.

South Korea's intelligence agency told MPs that Mr Kim had suffered a stroke but was likely to fully recover.

He told Kyodo news agency that Western media frequently reported falsehoods about his country.

An intelligence official reportedly told South Korean MPs that Mr Kim had suffered a cerebral haemorrhage which caused a stroke, but added that he was in a "recoverable condition.

Mr Kim has not been seen in public since early last month.

Kim was born on Feb 16, 1942, in a log cabin on Mount Paektu, the highest mountain on the Korean Peninsula.

The truth is that Kim was born a year earlier in the Soviet Union, at an army base near Khabarovsk, in the Soviet far east, not far from the short border shared by the two countries.

Kim has proved to be canny, if puzzling and erratic, making moves toward better relations with the West and then reverting to the use of shrieking vitriol.

Kim had indeed suffered a stroke but did not undergo any operations and remained in control of the government.

Kim Chong-suk, a partisan fighter, had retreated from her guerrilla base in Manchuria.

An official North Korean account says that Kim was born at his father's guerilla base on Mount Paekdu, North Korea.

In this way, Kim is eerily reminiscent of the Macaulay Culkin character in the early Elijah Wood vehicle The Good Son.

By the 1970s, Kim was terrorizing people into producing them as operas.

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Kim was given continually higher positions, more than several of which were created just for him.

of over 20,000 movies, including all of the James Bond movies.

Kim was 9 years old when the Korean War broke out in 1950, and his father sent him, forsafety,to Manchuria for the duration of the conflict.

Four years later, South Korea claimed that Kim had masterminded the bombing of Korean Air Flight 858, which killed all 115 passengers on November 29th of that year.

Kim is reported to have fathered thirteen illegitimate children over the years.

In 1997 Kim was officially named the leader of the ruling KWP (the party to which 80 percent of all North Korean government officials belong.

During his reign, Kim has continued his fathers personal philosophy of Juche, a code of diplomatic and economic self-reliance closely related to Stalinism, which the father had instituted as a check against excessive Soviet or Communist Chinese influence on his nation.

Since assuming dictatorial power, Kim has rarely appeared or spoken publicly in his homeland.

On a recent visit to China, Kim praised that nations economic progress and hinted that he might permit some attempts at economic reforms likethose carried out in China by Deng Xiaoping.

Sohn said in the biography that Kim was actually born in 1941 in Russia, not 1942.

Kim had a younger brother, but he drowned at the age of four while playing with Kim beside the pond in his father's mansion.

Kim met the pretty South Korean-born actress in 1968 while he was overseeing movie productions.

Not knowing Kim had a secret wife, his father urged him to marry.

In 1976, Kim took on a mistress, Koh Young-Hee.

Hwang Jang-Yop, the highest-ranking North Korean to defect to the South and perhaps the most knowledgeable about Kim Jong-Il, said Kim has the ability to control people.

Kim is a propaganda expert, Hwang and other defectors say.

But this act was staged to demonstrate that Kim was not a hermit figure but a witty and humorous person.

intelligence official told the Associated Press that there is reason to believe Kim is sick after he failed to show up at a North Korean national celebration on Tuesday.

Kim has not been seen in public for a month and US.

An official told FOX that one of the intelligence community's primary concerns is the line of succession in North Korea if, in fact, Kim is unable to rule or dies.

Kim has been absent from public view since mid-August.

South Korea's intelligence service has previously said Kim has chronic heart disease and diabetes denied by Kim himself.

Kim was accompanied by KPA generals Ri Myong-su, Hyon Chol-hae and Pak Jae-gyong and first vice department directors of the C.

Kim was accompanied by Yon Hyong Suk, vice-chairman of the National Defence Commission, KPA Generals Ri Myong Su, Hyon Chol Hae and Pak Jae Gyong and Ri Yong Chol, member of the Central Military Commission of the WPK and first vice department director of its Central Committee.

Kim was accompanied by KPA Generals Rim Myong Su, Hyon Chol Hae, Pak Jae Gyong and Member of the Central Military Commission of the WPK and First Vice Department Director of the Party Central Committee Ri Yong Chol.

Kim was accompanied by KPA Generals Ri Myong Su and Hyon Chol Hae, and Ri Yong Chol, member of the Central Military Commission of the WPK and first vice department director of its Central Committee.

Kim was accompanied by Kim Yong Chun, member of the NDC of DPRK and chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army, Yon Hyong Muk, vice-chairman of the NDC of the DPRK, and other senior officials of the Party and army, senior officials of power, administrative and economic institutions and in the fields of science, education, culture and arts, public health and the press and servicepersons.

Kim was accompanied by Vice Marshal Kim Yong Chun, chief of the KPA General Staff and member of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, and KPA Generals Ri Myong Su, Hyon Chol Hae and Pak Jae Gyong.

Kim was accompanied by KPA Generals Ri Myong Su, Hyon Chol Hae and Pak Jae Gyong and Ri Yong Chol, first vice department director of the Central Committee of the WPK.

Kim was accompanied by KPA Generals Ri Myong Su, Hyon Chol Hae and Pak Jae Gyong and First Vice Department Director of the WPK Central Committee Ri Yong Chol.

Kim was accompanied by Ri Yong Chol, member of the Central Military Commission of the WPK and first vice department director of its Central Committee.

Kim was accompanied by Chief of KPA General Staff Kim Yong Chun who is member of the DPRK National Defence Commission, Pak Pong Ju, premier of the DPRK Cabinet, Yon Hyong Muk, vice-chairman of the NDC of the DPRK, and Kang Sok Ju, first vice-minister of Foreign Affairs.

Kim met with Hu Jintao in Beijing on April 19.

Kim was accompanied by KPA Vice Marshal Kim Yong Chun, member of the NDC of the DPRK and chief of the KPA General Staff, KPA Generals Ri Myong Su, Hyon Chol Hae and Pak Jae Gyong and Ri Yong Chol, member of the Central Military Commission of the WPK and first vice department director of its Central Committee.

Kim was accompanied by First Vice Department Director Ju Kyu Chang and Vice Department Director Mun Myong On of the Central Committee of the WPK.

Kim was accompanied by Pak Pong Ju, premier of the Cabinet, Kim Yong Chun, chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army, Kim Il Chol, minister of the People's Armed Forces, Pak Nam Gi, Ju Kyu Chang, KPA Generals Hyon Chol Hae and Pak Jae Gyong and Kim Phyong Hae, chief secretary of the North Phyongan Provincial Committee of the WPK.

Kim was accompanied by Choe Thae Bok, Kim Kuk Thae, Jong Ha Chol and Kim Ki Nam, secretaries of the Central Committee of the WPK, and senior officials of the Party and the army and officials concerned.

Kim was joined by Vice-Marshal of the KPA Kim Yong Chun, member of the NDC of the DPRK and chief of the KPA General Staff, and KPA Generals Ri Myong Su, Hyon Chol Hae and Pak Jae Gyong.

Kim was accompanied by KPA Vice Marshal Kim Yong Chun, member of the NDC of the DPRK and chief of the KPA general staff, and KPA Generals Ri Myong Su, Hyon Chol Hae and Pak Jae Gyong.

Kim was accompanied by Vice-Marshal of the KPA Kim Yong Chun, member of the NDC of the DPRK and chief of the General Staff of the KPA, and KPA Generals Ri Myong Su, Hyon Chol Hae and Pak Jae Gyong.

Kim was accompanied by Chief of the General Staff of the KPA Kim Yong Chun and KPA Generals Ri Myong Su, Hyon Chol Hae and Pak Jae Gyong.

Kim was accompanied by Yon Hyong Muk, vice-chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission, KPA Generals Ri Myong Su, Hyon Chol Hae and Pak Jae Gyong and First Vice Department Directors of the WPK Central Committee Ri Yong Chol, Ri Je Gang and Ri Jae Il.

Kim was joined by KPA Generals Ri Myong Su, Hyon Chol Hae and Pak Jae Gyong and Ri Yong Chol, member of the WPK Central Military Commission and first vice department director of the WPK Central Committee.

Kim was accompanied by Premier of the Cabinet Pak Pong Ju, Vice-Chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK Yon Hyong Muk and others.

Kim was accompanied by KPA Vice Marshal Kim Yong Chum, member of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK and chief of the General Staff of the KPA, and KPA Generals Hyon Chol Hae and Pak Jae Gyong.

Kim was accompanied by Pak Pong Ju, premier of the Cabinet, KPA Vice Marshal Kim Yong Chun, member of the NDC of the DPRK and chief of the General Staff of the KPA, KPA Vice Marshal Kim Il Chol, member of the NDC of the DPRK and minister of the People's Armed Forces, Kim Kuk Thae, Kim Ki Nam and Pak Nam Gi, Ri Yong Chol, member of the Central Military Commission of the WPK and first vice department director of its Central Committee, and KPA Generals Hyon Chol Hae and Pak Jae Gyong.

Kim was accompanied by KPA Generals Hyon Chol Hae and Pak Jae Gyong and Ri Yong Chol, member of the Central Military Commission of the WPK and first vice department director of its Central Committee.

Kim was accompanied by KPA Generals Hyon Chol Hae and Pak Jae Gyong and Member of the Central Military Commission of the WPK and First Vice Department Director of the WPK Central Committee Ri Yong Chol.

Kim was accompanied by KPA Vice Marshal Kim Yong Chun, member of the DPRK National Defence Commission and chief of the KPA General Staff, and KPA Generals Ri Myong Su, Hyon Chol Hae and Pak Jae Gyong.

Kim was accompanied by KPA Generals Ri Myong Su and Hyon Chol Hae and Secretaries of the Central Committee of the WPK Kim Kuk Thae and Kim Ki Nam.

Kim was accompanied by KPA Generals Ri Myong Su and Hyon Chol Hae.

Kim was joined by Secretaries of the WPK Central Committee Kim Kuk Thae, Kim Ki Nam and Pak Nam Gi and First Vice Department Director of the WPK Central Committee Ju Kyu Chang.

Kim was joined by Hong Sok Hyong, chief secretary of the North Hamgyong Provincial Committee of the WPK, and Kim Ki Nam, secretary of the WPK Central Committee.

Kim was accompanied by KPA Generals Ri Myong Su, Hyon Chol Hae and Pak Jae Gyong.

The elder Kim was mindful of advice from others, while Kim Jong-il is arrogant and self-centered in policy decision.

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only surviving leader of the Anti-Japanese United Army operating in Manchuria.

men are trained in espionage, radio communications and sabotage.

government for the North, the People's Committee of North Korea.

of the Central Committee of the KWP, and at one point controls the military.

the international communist movement and workers' movement.

presented with a hybrid orchid by Indonesian President Sukarno.

of the Central Committee of the KWP.

Kim is also given the title of 'Generalisimo of the DPRK.

chairmanship of the National Defence Commission to Kim Jong Il.

He is eccentric, certainly, and his government is extremely secretive and brutal to dissidents, but experts say Kim is bright, clear-headed, politically astute, and as sane as any leader with unchecked power.

Kim is a moviemaker himself, the credited producer of Pulgasari, a 1985 Godzilla-esque story based on a 14th-century Korean legend about a monster who helps peasants overthrow their dictatorial king.

Kim is portrayed as a weirdo or a joke.

with an appetite for fast cars, expensive liquor and beautiful women.

Kim Dae Jung in 2000, he did not reciprocate with a visit to the South and the North has provoked international crises to win desperately needed food and other aid.

placeAd2(commercialNode,'midarticleflex',false,'')But Kim is a more serious leader than many first thought.

Kim has not made a public appearance in more than a month, and a US.

Then, when Kim met with South Korea's Kim Dae-jung for a historic summit in June 2000, his image underwent a revision.

The new Kim was rumored to be the totalitarian version of George W.

After all, the 60-year-old Kim is a short, anachronistic party animal who boasts a silly haircut, elevated shoes, and goofy glasses, and who almost always wears the same outfit.

But Kim is a more serious leader than many first thought.

The evils Kim has visited on his own country are even more horrifying—Stalinist gulags, secret police, and a populace that starves while Kim spends $900 million on dad's mausoleum.

Kim has used these tactics in almost every one of his recent diplomatic efforts.

Kim turned to the same page of his negotiating handbook when dealing with Russia: Vladimir Putin thought he reached a deal with Kim to stop North Korea's development of missiles, but Kim later said that his remarks to Putin were a "passing, laughing matter" that the Russian president had taken too seriously.

Kim has made it clear that, if sufficiently threatened, he will not hesitate to use nuclear weapons or his arm-mounted HyperBazooka.

Kim has weapons-capable missiles and a million-strong army breasting the 38th parallel.