North Korea

Kim Il-Sung Was the founding leader of North Korea from 1948 to 1994. The citizens of North Korea believed that he was “supernatural” or a God. Kim’s family was never in poverty but was also never well off. His family fled to Manchuria in the 1920’s. At seventeen Kim became the youngest member of an underground Marxist organization. In 1925 Kim became a member of the Communist Party of China. In 1945 Kim along with Soviet forces entered Korea, he was installed by the Soviets as head of the Provisional People’s Committee. He would later become the Prime Minister and then the President of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. He would become the leader of the Korean Communist Party but would not side with the Soviets policies, instead following China's. Kim Il-Sung would die suddenly of a heart attack in Pyongyang on July 8, 1994. This would make his eldest son Kim Jong-Il the new leader of North Korea.
Kim Il-Sung was a radical, but his son Kim Jung-il has seemed to surpass him. Sung was seen by his people as a god he was given the title of the “eternal leader” while his son has seemed to wreck havoc within his country. Now with reports of his waning health it would seem that a successor would be chosen soon. Il has reportedly been grooming his sons and his son in law for the position of leader but many reports say that the North Korean establishment would not advocate a continuation of the family dynasty at this point due to the suffering in the country. Does this mean that the country may be ready for a new form of government or just a new leader?
The United States has always had a very direct and obvious stand on Communism and Communist countries, but when the transition was happening of North Korea becoming Communist the U.S. was too busy with the Soviet Union. By the U.S. focusing basically solely on the Soviet Union we let two countries turn to communism. China and North Korea both turned to communism during our “containment” phase of the post world war II effort. Would there be any difference if we had more actively focused on either of these countries? Or would the Soviets not have broken up? I think the U.S. could have done more in preventing the original turn to communism in North Korea instead of attacking the problem 20 years down the road when it was a much larger problem.