hankyoreh

By Jung E-gil, Senior Staff Writer

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was always the subject of two conflicting perspectives and appraisals: the incompetent second-generation leader who ascended to power on his father's stature and the capable, yet brutal ruler with a strong will. A rational and magnanimous leader and the capricious and debauched ruler. The bumbling leader who left his country on the brink of starvation, or the leader who kept North Korea alive during a crisis with the so-called March of Tribulation. The views tended to be to the extremes, with little to nothing in the middle-ground.

Yet, the common denominator to all of them was that Kim was a resolute and iconoclastic decision-maker with intense powers of concentration. These qualities were manifested in a dilettante personality, with Kim spending all night working and demonstrating talents and interest in literature and the arts. North Korea scholars are unanimous that the three forces behind his grasp on power as a successor to Kim Il-sung were a combination of his father's determination, his own ability, and his election by veteran partisans.

Kim Jong-il assumed the burden of a crisis-stricken North Korea when his father died on July 18, 1994. At this time, Pyongyang was embroiled in the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula. During the worst time in the country's history, Kim set out to break through the crisis with military-centered "Songun" policies, as well as undertaking bold improvements in foreign relations. He brought the country to the brink of openness, signing the Agreed Framework with the United States in 1994, holding an inter-Korean summit and issuing the June 15 Joint Declaration with President Kim Dae-jung. He also attempted to organize a summit meeting with Bill Clinton to normalize diplomatic relations with the US following a visit by then US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in 2000.

Kim would go on to make renewed efforts at openness and establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula with the October 4 inter-Korean summit with President Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush in an attempt to organize a declaration to end the Korean War.

However, efforts to open up the country and establish peace were continually thwarted by changing North Korean policies and new administrations taking over in the various countries. North Korea's own nuclear program has also hindered peaceable relations. Experts say the main reason N. Korea has held onto its nuclear program for so long is because it is a big bargaining chip.

In his foreign policy, Kim Jong-il led the North with both antagonism and reconciliation. With inter-Korean relations heating up under the Lee Myung-bak administration in the South, he ultimately left his command in a state of collapse with nearly every country except China.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]