-Took the name Il Sung in honor of a famed guerilla fighter

-Relocated to the Soviet Union for special training where he joined the Communist Party

-Kim remained I the Soviet Union from 1940 until the end of WWII

Background

-Born April 15th, 1912 near Pyongyang, North Korea

-Original name was Kim Song Ju

-Parents took the family to Manchuria in the 1920s to flee the Japanese occupation of Korea.

-During the 1930s Kim mastered Chinese and became a Korean freedom fighter.

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