First President and Founder of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, otherwise known as North Korea, and father of Kim Jong-Il. Born Kim Song-ju, he was still young when his family fled occupied Korea for Manchuria. In 1932 the 20-year-old Kim commanded a group of anti-Japanese Korean partisans, but had fled Manchuria for the Soviet Far East by 1941. Once World War II had ended, Kim Il-Sung returned to now-divided Korea in September 1945, where he was placed in charge of the provisional government of northern Korea before being appointed premier of the newly-declared DPRK. Kim's main goal from the outset was reunification, but there was no question that the only way this would happen would be conquest due to the opposition of political principles in both Koreas. Kim lobbied Josef Stalin for permission to invade in March, August, and September of 1949, before Stalin finally agreed in April 1950, after Kim had spent the entire month in Moscow lobbying. The Korean War would last from June 1950 to July 1953, costing the lives of half a million North Koreans, 100,000 Chinese, 415,004 South Koreans, and 54,246 American troops. Kim claimed victory, despite the fact that he barely clung to his leadership. Several attempts at assassinating South Korean leadership followed the rest of Kim's reign, as well as the hijacking of the U.S.S. Pueblo in 1968. In the 1970s, he began developing a calcium deposit on the right side of the back of his neck, and it had grown to the size of a baseball by 1984. But perhaps Kim's greatest "Achievement" was the establishment of one of the last cults of personality to remain in the world. Kim's birthday and death date are both national holidays. And in print, years dated with a calendar begin with the year of Kim's birth. North Korea is also one of the last absolute totalitarian states, with all media strictly controlled, both television stations state-controlled, and the only Internet access in a single government facility swarming with government employees. Kim Il-Sung is rumored to have died following a heart attack suffered during an argument with his son, Kim Jong-Il. North Korea observed a three-year period of mourning, following which Kim Jong-Il assumed his father's mantle of "Great Leader" and Kim Il-Sung ascended to become North Korea's "Eternal Leader." Kim's body lies in state at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang.