Kim Pyong-il is the eldest son of Kim Il-sung’s second wife, Kim Sung-ae, and a half brother of Kim Jong-il.

Kim Il-sung had three sons and two daughters from his two wives. His first wife, Kim Jong-sok, bore Kim Jong-il and daughter Kim Kyong-hui before she died. His second wife had Kim Kyong-jin—the wife of former North Korean Ambassador to Austria Kim Kwang-sop— and sons Pyong-il and Yong-il, a former councilor at the North Korean Embassy in Germany who died of liver cancer in 2000.

Kim Jong-il discriminated against his half-siblings and prevented their entry into the core elite. For a time, he and half-brother Pyong-il fought over the right to succeed their father. Jong-il eventually won and has since had Pyong-il wander from one ambassadorial position to another.

In 1976, Kim Pyong-il took over as armored truck battalion commander of the General Bureau of Security Guards. Six years later, he was appointed military attaché to Yugoslavia. As a senior general in 1987, Kim was named deputy chief of the strategic bureau of the People’s Armed Forces Ministry. He was then assigned as ambassador to Hungary in 1988, to Bulgaria in 1988, to Finland in 1994 and to Poland in 1998.

He and his wife have two children.