Kim Il-sung (15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was the leader of North Korea for 46 years, from its establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. According to North Korean sources, the works of Kim Il-sung amount to approximately 10,800 speeches, reports, books, treatises and other types of works. As of 1980, about 60 of them are considered to be particularly important by outside observers. With the Century, Kim Il-sung's eight-volume autobiography written shortly before his death, is his most popular work among North Korean readership.