Inside Kim Jong-il's Fortune: Kim Jong-il's Total Wealth in Net Worth 2026: Career Earnings & Assets

As one of the most talked-about figures, Kim Jong-il has built a significant fortune. Our team analyzed the latest data to provide a clear picture of their income.

What was Kim Jong-il's Net Worth?

Kim Jong-il's official biography states that he was born on February 16, 1942, in a secret military camp in Japanese-occupied Korea, but Soviet records tell a different story, showing that he was born Yuri Irsenovich Kim on February 16, 1941, in Vyatskoye, Khabarovsk Krai, Russia. His mother, Kim Jong-suk, died in 1949 while giving birth to a stillborn baby, and Kim's younger brother, Kim Man-il, drowned in 1947. Kim's father later remarried and reportedly had three children with his new wife.

Kim Jong-il was the Supreme Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), who had a net worth of $4 billion at the time of his death. Kim Jong-il died on December 17, 2011, at the age of 70.

(Photo by Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images)

Kim Jong-il succeeded his father and founder of the DPRK, Kim Il-sung, after the elder Kim passed away in 1994. Kim Jong-il was the Chairman of the National Defense Commission of North Korea and the General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), and he was the Supreme Commander of the world's fourth-largest standing army, the Korean People's Army. North Korea's constitution was amended in April 2009 to refer to Kim as the "supreme leader." Many North Koreans believed he had a "magical" ability to "control the weather" based on his mood. Kim was named the "Eternal Chairman of the National Defence Commission" and the "Eternal General Secretary" of the WPK after his death.

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Kim studied at Pyongyang's Primary School No. 4 and Middle School No. 1, according to his biography, and he was a member of the Democratic Youth League of North Korea and the Korean Children's Union. In 1960, he graduated from Namsan Higher Middle School and enrolled at Kim Il Sung University, where he majored in Marxist political economy.

After Kim Jong-il graduated in 1964, he rose to power in the Korean Workers' Party, and by the 1980s, he was being prepared to succeed his father as North Korea's leader. When the Sixth Party Congress was held in 1980, Kim was given senior posts in the Military Commission, the Secretariat, and the Politburo, and in 1982, he was appointed to the Seventh Supreme People's Assembly. Kim was named Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army in 1991 despite the fact that he had no military experience, and in 1992, Kim Il-sung put him in charge of internal affairs in the Democratic People's Republic. The following year, Kim Jong-il became Chairman of the National Defence Commission.

Kim Il-sung died of a heart attack on July 8, 1994, and Kim Jong-il officially began serving as General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea on October 8, 1997. A 2004 Human Rights Watch report stated that under Kim's leadership, the North Korean government was "among the world's most repressive governments" due to the fact that they kept up to 200,000 political prisoners and did not allow freedom of the press, equal education, political opposition, or freedom of religion. In 2008, Kim had two strokes, and the TBS TV network in Japan reported that the second stroke "affected the movement of his left arm and leg and also his ability to speak." He was re-elected as chairman of the National Defence Commission in April 2009, and his appearance at the Supreme People's Assembly was his first public appearance since August 2008.

In summary, the total wealth of Kim Jong-il reflects strategic moves.

Disclaimer: All net worth figures are estimates based on public data.