North Koreans' admiration for Kim stemmed from his composure under US bombing that left separated families, widows, orphans, disabled in its wake (about 25% of NK population was killed and another 50% was wounded). In immediate aftermath of 1953 armistice, Kim gov't undertook determined economic planning that succeeded in steady improvement of people's lives for about 2 decades (heavy defense burden would be factor in eventual development lag). Irrespective of later Kim-worship - emergence of which coincides, not coincidentally I think, with onset of economic stagnation in late 1960s/early 1970s - not hard to understand why folks might have praised him. Michael Hoover