Editing Kim Jong-il (section)

== Personality ==
Like his father [[Kim Il-sung]], Jong-il had pteromerhanophobia (fear of flying) and he always traveled by private armored train for state visits to Russia and China.<ref name = facts></ref>The BBC reported that Konstantin Pulikovsky, a Russian emissary who traveled with Jong-il across Russia by train, told reporters that Jong-il had live lobsters air-lifted to the train every day.

Jong-il was said to be a huge movie fan, owning a collection of more than 20,000 video tapes and DVDs. His reported favorite movie franchises included ''Friday the 13th'', ''Rambo'', ''Godzilla'', and Hong Kong action cinema, and any movie starring Elizabeth Taylor. He authored On the Art of the Cinema.<ref name = cinephile>[https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-16245174.amp Kim Jong-il: The cinephile despot], ''BBC News''</ref> In 1978, on Jong-il's orders, South Korean movie director Shin Sang-ok and his actress wife Choi Eun-hee were kidnapped in order to build a North Korean film industry.<ref name = kidnapping>[https://www.npr.org/2016/09/22/494908429/a-korean-celebrity-couple-kidnapped-by-kim-jong-il-the-lovers-and-the-despot A Korean Celebrity Couple Kidnapped By Kim Jong Il: 'The Lovers And The Despot'], ''NPR''</ref> In 2006, he was involved in the production of the [[Juche]]-based movie, The Schoolgirl's Diary, which depicted the life of a young girl whose parents are scientists, with a KCNA news report stating that Jong-il "improved its script and guided its production".

In a 2011 news story, ''The Sun'' reported, "Kim Jong-il was obsessed with Elvis Presley. His mansion was crammed with his idol's records and his collection of 20,000 Hollywood movies included Presley's titles — along with ''Rambo'' and ''Godzilla''. He even copied the King's Vegas-era look of giant shades, jumpsuits and bouffant hairstyle. It was reported in 2003 that Kim Jong-il had a huge porn film collection."

Although Jong-il enjoyed many foreign forms of entertainment, according to former bodyguard Lee Young Kuk, he refused to consume any food or drink not produced in North Korea, with the exception of wine from France. However, his former chef Kenji Fujimoto has stated that Jong-il sometimes sent him around the world to purchase a variety of foreign delicacies.

Jong-il reportedly enjoyed basketball. Former United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright ended her summit with Jong-il by presenting him with a basketball signed by Michael Jordan. Also an apparent golfer, North Korean state media reports that Jong-il routinely shot 3 or 4 holes-in-one per round. His official biography also claims that Jong-il composed six operas and enjoys staging elaborate musicals. Jong-il called himself an Internet expert.

United States Special Envoy for the Korean Peace Talks, Charles Kartman, who was involved in the 2000 Madeleine Albright summit with Jong-il, characterized him as a reasonable man in negotiations, to the point, but with a sense of humor and personally attentive to the people he was hosting. However, psychological evaluations conclude that Jong-il's antisocial features, such as his fearlessness in the face of sanctions and punishment, served to make negotiations extraordinarily difficult.

The field of psychology has long been fascinated with the personality assessment of dictators, a notion that resulted in an extensive personality evaluation of Kim Jong-il. The report, compiled by Frederick L. Coolidge and Daniel L. Segal (with the assistance of a South Korean psychiatrist considered an expert on Jong-il's behavior), concluded that the "big six" group of personality disorders shared by dictators [[Adolf Hitler]], [[Joseph Stalin]], and [[Saddam Hussein]] (borderline, sadistic, paranoid, antisocial, narcissistic, schizoid, and schizotypal) were also shared by Jong-il — coinciding primarily with the profile of Hussein.

The evaluation found Jong-il appeared to pride himself on North Korea's independence, despite the extreme hardships it appears to place on the North Korean people — an attribute appearing to emanate from his antisocial personality pattern. This notion also encourages other cognitive issues, such as self-deception, as subsidiary components to Jong-il's personality.

Defectors claimed that Jong-il had 17 different palaces and residences all over North Korea, including a private resort near Baekdu Mountain, a seaside lodge in the city of Wonsan, and Ryongsong Residence, a palace complex northeast of Pyongyang surrounded with multiple fence lines, bunkers and anti-aircraft batteries.<ref>[https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/kimspalaces-08172009121508.html Kim's Palaces, Via Google Earth], ''Radio Free Asia''</ref>

===Finances===
According to the ''Sunday Telegraph'', Jong-il had US$4 billion on deposit in European banks in case he ever needed to flee North Korea. The ''Sunday Telegraph'' reported that most of the money was in banks in Luxembourg.

=== Cult of personality ===
{{Quote|<br>Mount Peaktu reaches across<br>Shaping our beautiful land!<br>Cheers resound throughout the land<br>As our general is proudly hailed!<br>The people he valiantly leads<br>The cause of the sun, he carries on!<br>Long live, long live,<br>General Kim Jong-il!<br>|Song of General Kim Jong-il}}
Kim Jong-il was the center of an elaborate [[Cult of personality|personality cult]] inherited from his father and founder of the DPRK [[Kim Il-sung]]. Defectors have been quoted as saying that North Korean schools deify both father and son. He was often the center of attention throughout ordinary life in the DPRK. On his 60th birthday (based on his official date of birth), mass celebrations occurred throughout the country on the occasion of his Hwangab. Many North Koreans believed that he had the "magical" ability to "control the weather" based on his mood. In 2010, the North Korean media reported that Jong-il's distinctive clothing had set worldwide fashion trends.
One point of view is that Jong-il's cult of personality was solely out of respect for Il-sung or out of fear of punishment for failure to pay homage. Media and government sources from outside of North Korea generally support this view, while North Korean government sources aver it was a genuine hero worship. The song "No Motherland Without You," sung by the KPA State Merited Choir, was created especially for Jong-il in 1992 and is frequently broadcast on the radio and from loudspeakers on the streets of Pyongyang.

After Jong-il's death, a bronze statue of him was built and placed next to the statue of Kim Il-sung. When visiting these statues, both North Koreans and tourists are required to bow, and are also recommended to leave flowers as a sign of respect.