On a May evening in 1941, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Suk made love in a tent in the Soviet Far East.  Newlyweds, they gave themselves to each other, unaware of what the future would bring—their intimacy a result of their mutual struggle against the Japanese.  The two revolutionaries shared a rare marital bond: they had fought side-by-side at moments when death seemed certain.

This battle-hardened intimacy led to the birth of Kim Jong Il on February 16, 1942.  Somewhere near dawn, the cries of that newborn baby pierced the cold morning air of a guerilla camp near the Soviet border with Manchuria.