Kim Man-il

Kim Man-il (Korean: 김만일; Hanja: 金萬一; born Alexander Irsenovich Kim^[a]; 1943–1946/1948) was the second son of the North Korean founding leader Kim Il Sung and his first wife Kim Jong Suk. He was the younger brother of Kim Jong Il, the second leader of North Korea.

In this Korean name, the family name is Kim.

Kim Man-il
김만일
Born	Alexander Irsenovich Kim c. 1943 Vyatskoye, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Died	1946–1948 (aged 3–5) Pyongyang, Soviet Korea (North Korean sources) Vyatskoye, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (Soviet records)
Cause of death	Drowning
Parent(s)	Kim Il Sung Kim Jong Suk
Family	Kim family

Biography

Soviet records show that he was born Alexander Kim in 1943 in the village of Vyatskoye, Khabarovsk Krai, Soviet Union. Inside his family, he went by a Russian diminutive nickname for "Alexander", Shura (Russian: Шура).^{[citation needed]}

Official North Korean biographies state that he and his older brother Kim Jong Il got along very well and played together.^[1]

Death

There are conflicting accounts of Kim Man-il's death. North Korean sources claim that in the summer of 1946 or 1948, he accidentally drowned while playing with his brother in a pond in Pyongyang.^[2] However, Russian sources indicate that he fell in a well in Vyatskoye and drowned, prior to the family moving back to Korea.^[3] Two North Korean defectors have alleged that the young Kim Jong Il was responsible. When the brothers were playing in the pond near the edge in chest-high water, Kim Jong Il raised his face above the water faster than Shura and pushed his younger brother's head back into the water while laughing, eventually drowning him in the process.^[4]

Official North Korean records state that, after Kim Man-il's death, Kim Jong Il was devastated and never got over the trauma. A grave allegedly belonging to Kim Man-il is located in Vyatskoye.^[5] A year after his death, in 1949, his mother Kim Jong Suk died while giving birth to a stillborn girl.

The Kim family tree (DPRK)
Na Hyeon-Jik Kim Song-Ryeong Lady Lee Kim Ŭngu Yi Po-Ik (Lee Bo-Ik) Kim Pohyŏn Kang Pan Sok Kim Hyong-jik Kim Hyong-gwon Kim Song-ae Kim Il-Sung Kim Jong-suk Kim Yong-Ju Kim Pyong-il Kim Jong Il Kim Kyong-hui Kim Man-il

v t e Select[α] family tree of North Korea's ruling Kim family[β][γ][δ][ε]
Kim Song-ryeong 1810–1899 Kim Ŭngu 1848–1878 Kim Pohyŏn 1871–1955 Kim Hyong-jik 1894–1926 Kang Pan Sok 1892–1932 Kim Jong-suk 1917–1949 Kim Il Sung 1912–1994 Kim Song-ae 1924–2014 Kim Yong-ju 1920–2021 Kim Young-sook 1947– Song Hye-rim 1937–2002 Kim Jong Il 1941?[ζ]–2011 Ko Yong-hui 1952–2004 Kim Ok 1964– Kim Kyong-hui 1946– Jang Song-thaek 1946–2013 Kim Pyong Il 1954– Kim Sol-song 1974– Kim Jong-nam 1971–2017 Kim Jong Chul 1981– Kim Jong Un 1983?[η]– Ri Sol-ju c. 1986– Kim Yo Jong 1987– Kim Han-sol 1995– Kim Ju Ae c. 2012[θ]–
Notes: To keep the tree of manageable size, it omits five out of the seven known legitimate children of Kim Il Sung. Other children not shown in the tree are: Kim Man-il (1944-1947; child of Kim Jong-suk), Kim Kyong-jin (1952-; child of Kim Song-ae), Kim Yong-il (1955-2000; child of Kim Song-ae), and Kim Kyong-suk (1951-; child of Kim Song-ae). A stillborn daughter is also omitted. Kim Il Sung was reported to have had other children with women who he was not married to; they included Kim Hyŏn-nam (born 1972). Also, only some of the descendants of Kim Jong Il and Kim Jung Un (Kim Il Sung's successors) are included. Korean names often have a variety of transliterations into English, which can be confusing. For example, "Kim Jong Chul" may also be written "Gim Jeong-cheol" or "Kim Jŏng-ch'ŏl" among many other variations. See Korean romanization for more information. Huss, Kan; Frost, Clay. "North Korea's First Family: Mapping the personal and political drama of the Kim clan". msnbc.com. Archived from the original on 2012-02-04. Retrieved 20 January 2013. (Confirms many, but not all, of the birth and death years. See individual articles for more references.) Yan, Holly (16 February 2017). "The world's most mysterious family tree: Kim Jong Un's secretive dynasty is full of drama, death". Design by Alberto Mier. CNN. Retrieved 16 February 2017. Lee, Sung-Yoon (2023). "The Mount Paektu Dynasty (Family Tree)". The Sister: The extraordinary story of Kim Yo Jong, the most powerful woman in North Korea. United Kingdom: Macmillan. p. x-xi. ISBN 9781529073539. Official North Korean biographies of Kim Jong Il list his birth year as 1942. The Korean calendar is based upon the Chinese zodiac which is believed to characterize one's personality. The year 1942 (Year of the Horse), in addition to being 30 years since Kim Il Sung's birth may be viewed as a better year than others, thus creating a motive to lie about a birth year. Official North Korean biographies of Kim Jong Un list his birth year as 1982. The Korean calendar is based upon the Chinese zodiac which is believed to characterize one's personality. The year 1982 (Year of the Dog), in addition to being 70 years since Kim Il Sung's birth, may be viewed as a better year than others, thus creating a motive to lie about a birth year. Birth year for Kim Ju Ae is not publicly known. She may have been born in either late 2012 or early 2013.

Notes

1. Russian: Александр Ирсенович Ким