Day of the Shining Star
Kim Jong-il was born in February 1941 to Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-suk in Siberia in the Russian Federal Republic, Soviet Union where his father had been in exile because of his guerilla activities. North Korean propaganda, however, dates Kim Jong-il's birth to 16 February 1942 and locates it at the Mount Paektu area in Korea, the mythical place of origin of the Korean people, where Kim Il-sung supposedly ran a guerilla camp. In reality, the guerillas were based in Manchuria at the time and Kim himself had been to the Soviet Far East before and after Kim Jong-il's birth.
Abduction of Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee
Kim Jong-il joined the Propaganda and Agitation Department in 1966 and soon became director of the Motion Picture and Arts Division. He was a big fan of films, with a library of 15,000 at his disposal. As director he reached the public with films and operas homogenous in theme: pride in the nation and specifically in Kim Il-sung. Charles K. Armstrong writes in his book, "Tyranny of the Weak: North Korea and the World 1950-1992", that "Kim took North Korean arts in a direction that seemed specifically designed to ensure his father's favor: under his guidance, new films and operas focused as never before on the anti-Japanese struggle of Kim Il Sung and his comrades in Manchuria during the 1930's".