Monday 10pm DICTATOR'S PLAYBOOK - History/Documentary - Learn how six dictators, from Mussolini to Saddam Hussein, shaped the 20th century. How did they seize and lose power? What forces were against them? Learn the answers in these six immersive hours, each a revealing portrait of brutality and power.
Kim Il Sung - Witness Kim Il Sung's transformation from guerrilla fighter to brutal dictator of North Korea. How did he build the most controlled society on earth and launch a dictatorship that has lasted for three generations?
Of the dictators we meet in this series, Kim Il Sung has probably had the most enduring impact. The country he shaped remains locked in a totalitarian system, with an estimated 100,000 people imprisoned in gulags. The cult of personality Kim established as a rising dictator in the 1950s is still in place some 70 years later. And today, North Korea is ruled by his grandson, Kim Jong Un.
The Road to Dictatorship:
- Kim Il Sung became a legend as a young man, when he led a group of communist guerillas in fierce battles against the Japanese, who were occupying Korea. Once he took power as North Korea’s ruler, these exploits became the basis for the cult of personality created around him.
- Kim consolidated his rule by purging his rivals and former comrades. But he used a carrot as well as a stick, winning support from his people by giving away millions of acres of land to poor farmers.
- Obsessed with who would take over when he died, Kim created a hereditary dynasty that endures to this day.
