A/HRC/25/CRP.1 99. At the top, this early period was marked by intense factional jockeying for power that continued for over a decade. Kim Il-sung began to consolidate his power by placing his supporters, the young guerrillas who had fought with him against Japan in Manchuria—the Guerrilla Faction, into positions of power and purging those who posed a threat to his assumption of authority. In 1946, former Soviet police officer Pang Hak-se was appointed to head the Section on Political Defence of the state within the Security Department, which was the first organization for the political police and counter-intelligence. Pang Hak-se is credited as the founder of the North Korean political police. Despite coming from the Soviet Korean Faction, and not from Kim Il-sung’s own Guerrilla Faction, he maintained lifelong loyalty to him. 100. Although Kim Il-sung was by most accounts an accomplished guerrilla fighter, he quickly began to bolster his standing through enhancement of his personal record and engendering a cult of personality that has come to characterize the governance of the DPRK and the state’s approach towards freedom of information, opinion and expression. Former Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly Hwang Jang-yop explained: The reason why Kim was chosen from among the Koreans in the 88th Infantry Brigade was apparently because he was young and had a good outlook. His experiences were no match for the Chinese [Korean] leaders of the day, though. Exaggerated propaganda was necessary in order to elevate a Russian army captain to the status of legendary North Korean hero, but at that time Korea had just experienced painful oppression under Japanese rule. This presented a good opportunity for exaggerated propaganda.26 101. In 1946, there was a consolidation of all political groups into the North Korean Workers’ Party. The North Korean armed forces were also organized and reinforced. They were trained and equipped by the Soviet military although initially they were disguised as police and railway defence units. By the time the DPRK was established in September 1948, Kim Il-sung was firmly in position as the head of the Cabinet of Ministers (or Premier). Soviet forces then withdrew in large numbers from the DPRK. In 1949, the DPRK instituted compulsory military service, bringing the total number of troops to between 150,000 and 200,000, organized into ten infantry divisions, one tank division and one air force division. This large military force was equipped with Soviet weapons, including T-34 tanks and Yak fighter planes. These forces were further bolstered by the return of 45,000 war-hardened Korean soldiers from China following the end of the civil war there. 102. Between 1945 and 1948, the 38th parallel turned into a heavily guarded border, while both sides of the divided peninsula contemplated the use of military force to achieve reunification. Tensions and military provocations increased after the respective departures of Soviet and United States forces in 1948. On 25 June 1950, Kim Il-sung, after finally securing support from both Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong,27 initiated the Korean War by 26 27 Hwang Jang-yop was the highest level defector to the ROK. See Hwang Jang-yop Hoegorok (Hwang Jang-yop’s memoirs) (Published in Korean by Zeitgeist, 2006, translated by Daily NK). SUB0064. Joseph Stalin backed Kim Il-sung’s war by withdrawing his earlier opposition to it, minimizing his own contribution and putting the onus of support on Mao Zedong’s new government in China. The Soviet Union provided heavy weaponry to the DPRK but did not provide troops. Nevertheless, Kim Il-sung’s top military advisors in the early phase of the war were Russian generals who re-drew North Korean invasion plans to their own specifications. Mao pledged to send Chinese troops if the Americans entered the war. David Halberstam, The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War (New York, Hyperion, 2007), pp. 47-59. Soviet archives also support this account, in Andrei Lankov, 23