The Kim dynasty, referred to in North Korea as the Mount Paektu bloodline or Mount Baekdu bloodline, is a three-generation lineage of North Korean leadership descending from the country's first leader, Kim Il-sung. In 1948, Kim came to rule the North after the end of Japanese rule in 1945 split the region. He began the Korean War in 1950 in a failed attempt to reunify the Korean Peninsula. By the 1980s, Kim developed a cult of personality closely tied to their state philosophy of Juche, which would later be passed on to his two successors: son Kim Jong-il and grandson Kim Jong-un.