Sung was the leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) from its inception in 1948 until his death in 1994. His son, Kim Jong Il, took power after his death, and leads the republic today. Kim Il Sung was worshipped by his people under a state ideology called Juche, which was a complex movement to establish a unique North Korean political movement independent of Marxist-Leninist ideals and the de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union in the late 1950s.