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. But 1945 saw the establishment of the North Korean Bureau of the Communist Party of Korea. This became the body which rules today.