Korea: North Korean leader Kim Il Sung shakes hands with Romanian communist leader Nicolai Ceausescu, Pyongyang, June 1971. Romanian National Archives, Photo E558

Nicolae Ceausescu (26 January 1918 – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader. He was also the country's head of state from 1967 to 1989.

Ceausescu visited China, North Korea, the Mongolian People's Republic and North Vietnam in 1971. He took great interest in the idea of total national transformation as embodied in the programs of North Korea's Juche and China's Cultural Revolution. He was also inspired by the personality cults of North Korea's Kim Il-sung and China's Mao Zedong. Shortly after returning home, he began to emulate North Korea's system. North Korean books on Juche were translated into Romanian and widely distributed inside the country.

Kim Il-sung (15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was a Korean communist politician who ruled North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, from its establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of Prime Minister from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to his death. He was also the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea from 1949 to 1994 (titled as chairman from 1949 to 1966 and as general secretary after 1966).

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Romanian National Archives Photo

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