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Kim Jong Il (16 February 1941 or 1942 – 17 December 2011) was a North Korean politician and dictator who was the second supreme leader of North Korea from the death of his father Kim Il Sung in 1994 until his own death in 2011. Posthumously, Kim Jong Il was declared an eternal leader of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).

Kim was born in 1941 in the far eastern region of the Soviet Union and moved to Pyongyang in 1945 following the end of Japanese rule. He joined the WPK in 1961 and rose through its ranks, joining the Propaganda and Agitation Department (PAD) in 1966. He was responsible for investigations following the Kapsan faction incident in 1967, and played a key role in the development of the North Korean cult of personality and the Monolithic Ideological System. He became PAD director in 1973, and was formally designated as Kim Il Sung's successor in 1980. Kim succeeded his father following his death in 1994. Kim was the General Secretary of the WPK, Member of WPK Presidium, Chairman of the WPK Central Military Commission, Chairman of the National Defence Commission (NDC) of North Korea and the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army (KPA), the fourth-largest standing army in the world.

Like his father, Kim ruled North Korea as a repressive and totalitarian dictatorship. Kim assumed leadership during a period of catastrophic economic crisis amidst the dissolution of the Soviet Union, on which it was heavily dependent for trade in food and other supplies, which brought a famine. While the famine had ended by the late 1990s, food scarcity continued to be a problem throughout his tenure. Kim strengthened the role of the military with his Songun ("military-first") policies, making the army the central organizer of civil society. Kim's rule also saw tentative economic reforms, including the opening of the Kaesong Industrial Region in 2003. The relationship with South Korea initially improved due to the Sunshine Policy, culminating in Kim's meeting with South Korean president Kim Dae-jung in 2000, though the relationship subsequently deteriorated in 2010 following the sinking of ROKS Cheonan and the bombardment of Yeonpyeong. Under his leadership, North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, becoming the world's ninth nuclear-armed state, followed by another nuclear test in 2009, leading to international sanctions against North Korea.

Following Kim's failure to appear at important public events in 2008, foreign observers assumed that Kim had either fallen seriously ill or died. After this point, Kim made efforts to promote his third son, Kim Jong Un as his successor, promoting him to high ranking posts in the WPK in 2010. On 19 December 2011, the North Korean government announced that he had died two days earlier. After his death, alongside "Eternal General Secretary" of the WPK, Kim Jong Il was declared "Eternal Chairman" of the National Defence Commission, in keeping with the tradition of establishing eternal posts for the dead members of the Kim family.