SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea is releasing songs and poems praising leader Kim Jong Il's youngest son as part of efforts to groom him as his father's successor, South Korea's spy chief w ...

My poem, “Spring Rests on the Gun Barrel of the Lord,” was written in the voice of a South Korean poet who, ... Writing helped me join Kim Jong-il's inner circle—until I committed treason.

While the world believed that Kim Jong-il was anointed his father’s successor, internal documents showed that the younger Kim had wrestled power from his dad, the country’s godhead and Supreme ...

My mother tongue – the one that I learned to read write, think in and understand the world through – was the language of our Revolutionary History. Even when I turned to novels or poetry, whatever ...

North Korea today commemorates the birthday of late dictator Kim Jong Il, capping off weeks of celebration that included carving his name into the side of a mountain, as it tries to burnish the ...

Photograph by Richard Cannon. As a state-appointed poet laureate, Jang Jin Sung reached the pinnacle of elite life in North Korea. He spent his days writing epic poems for dictator Kim Jong Il ...

Just before Kim Jong Il died, ... More than 100 poems had been written in Kim's honor in the past two days, KCNA said, with titles like "Rise Up, ...

Foreigners scrutinised the seven pallbearers at Kim Jong Il's funeral in 2011, but none held real power, Mr Jang says. "Dear Leader", which includes three personal poems, is a testament to Mr Jang ...

A spin-off blog featuring the Dear Leader’s son and successor, Kim Jong Un, was launched hours after the announcement of Kim Jong Il’s death on Dec. 18, 2011.

When Kim Il Sung, the "president-for-life" of North Korea, turned sixty-two, in 1974, he decided that his son Kim Jong Il would succeed him. Kim Jong Il, who indeed took over when his father died ...