Kim Yong-ju (Korean: 김영주; 1920 – 14 December 2021) was a North Korean politician and the younger brother of Kim Il Sung, who ruled North Korea from 1948 to 1994. Under his brother's rule, Kim Yong-ju held key posts including Politburo member in the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) during the 1960s and early 1970s, but he fell out of favour in 1974 following a power struggle with Kim Jong Il. From 1998 until his death in 2021, he held the ceremonial position of Honorary Vice President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA), North Korea's parliament.
In 1967, he proposed to his brother the "Ten Principles for the Establishment of the One-Ideology System" (whose first principle was: "We must give our all in the struggle to unify the entire society with the revolutionary ideology of the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung"), which were published only in 1974.[6]
By 1970, when he was elected WPK Politburo member, Kim Yong-ju was widely believed to be Kim Il Sung's successor.[8] He was also elected to the top Central People's Committee and the SPA Presidium in 1972. However, at the same time Kim Il Sung started grooming his own son Kim Jong Il to be his designated successor, and a power struggle erupted.[5]
It was the period when the WPK was focusing ideologically on Kim Il Sung's Juche; while Kim Jong Il actively stood for this process, Kim Yong-ju, having studied in the Soviet Union, supported a more classical view of Marxism and was not fond of the extensive personality cult built around his brother.[5] This played to Kim Jong Il's advantage: Kim Yong-ju was increasingly marginalized, his key allies Kim To-man (director of propaganda) and Pak Yong-guk (director of international liaisons) were removed, and he himself was finally attacked by Kim Il Sung. After a Central Committee plenum in February 1974, Kim Jong Il was granted the position of heir apparent and Kim Yong-ju was demoted to Vice Premier.[5]
^Chiefs of State and Cabinet members of foreign governments / National Foreign Assessment Center. Jan–Apr 1994. Central Intelligence Agency. 11 February 2018 [1994]. hdl:2027/mdp.39015073049192. OCLC44347462 – via HathiTrust.