The strange history of North Korea's Communists

North Korea is marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of its Communist Party, the sole controller of the state. Kim Jong-un, the grandson of the man who cemented the party's rule, will preside over spectacular celebrations. 

But the story of how the party transformed from a political organisation to an institutionalised family dictatorship is a strange and bloody one, as North Korea leadership expert Michael Madden explains.

On 17 October 1926, a teenage Kim Il-sung, who would later become North Korea's first leader, set up the "Down-with-Imperialism Union". It was founded, so the propaganda goes, to fight against Japanese imperialism and to promote Marxism-Leninism. 

The North Korean propaganda machine would like to celebrate this as the anniversary of the Party's foundation. For others, the true foundation is 1949, when South and North Korean Communists finally came together in a coalition that aimed to lead one unified Korea.