April 30, 2024
Analysis

Suh Dae-sook, pioneering biographer of North Korea’s Kim Il Sung, dies at 90

A major figure in DPRK studies, Suh bridged gaps with scholarship in English and shed light on regime during Cold War

Suh Dae-sook, a pioneering scholar of North Korean studies who wrote one of the most authoritative biographies of founding leader Kim Il Sung, died last week at the age of 90.

Born in Manchuria in 1931, Suh spent his childhood years in the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo, the same place where Kim Il Sung was fighting his guerilla role against Imperial Japan. 

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