Democratic People's Republic Of Korea Uniforms In Wear.

[Esteban_cool]

Originally Posted by January

Here's a picture of Kim Jong Il in the same uniform to accompany the above Kim Il Sung pic. You are correct about the Marshal's star; in Korean, they call him Wonsu, which is like a Marshal of the Soviet Union or else one symbolic rank higher (I forget which). It might seem ridiculous for someone from such a small country to have such a high rank until you consider how huge their military is (fourth largest in the world).

Actually, I think the rank of Wonsu (supreme marshal according to the world uniform rank insignia source) is considered to be the equivalent of the Generalissimo of the Soviet Union(the symbolic higher rank you talk about), since the rank was created for Kim Il Sung and now is being held by his son Kim Jong Il. However, I don´t know if these higher ranks (Marshal and Supreme Marshal) were copied from the chinese system to the korean or vice-versa, since both countries had them (China had it at least until 1965).

The International Encyclopedia of Uniform and Rank Insignia around the World

[January]

Ah, yes--I'd forgotten about the Generalissimo of the Soviet Union rank; that would be equivalent to Kim's rank, I believe. I think that I actually discovered the Wonsu (Daewonsu?) rank while reading up on the GSU rank. I seem to recall having read that the idea was to outrank any Marshal of the Soviet Union, or any other military commander elsewhere in the world, for that matter.

Thanks greatly! Amazing that I can reply to a post from 2005 and get a response from the original poster only hours later!