Kim Jong Un, the handpicked “Great Successor” to Kim Jong Il, who died Sunday, is an unlikely addition to the ranks of the world’s leaders. He had no known political, diplomatic or military experience before his father made him a four-star general last year and anointed him as crown prince of the world’s only communist dynasty.
Much about Jong Un remains a state secret, including his age — speculation centers on 27 or 28 — the identity of his mother and his own marital status.
Former US envoy Bill Richardson, who has visited Pyongyang, said the power vacuum created by his father’s death raises “extreme concern because North Korea and the peninsula is a tinderbox.”
He said the next 24 hours would determine how firmly Kim Jong Un is in control. That’s important because North Korea is believed to have enough plutonium for eight atomic bombs.
The Obama administration greeted Kim Jong Il’s death cautiously. President Obama spoke with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak shortly after the news broke, and officials said US diplomats were also in close contact with Japan, which always watches Pyongyang nervously.
White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters, “We hope that the new North Korean leadership will take the steps necessary to support peace, prosperity and a better future for the North Korean people, including . . . acting on its commitments to denuclearization.”
Apart from a short-range missile test — which may have been previously scheduled by North Korea — the border area remained quiet.
Kim Jong Un is the youngest of three sons of a bizarrely dysfunctional family. His older brother Kim Jong Nam apparently lost his chance to succeed Kim Jong Il after he was caught in 2001 trying to sneak into Japan — using a bogus Dominican Republic passport — to visit the Tokyo version of Disneyland. Another brother, Kim Jong Chol, was said to have been ruled out of the succession race because he is “too effeminate.”
Kim Jong Un is known to speak English, German and French that he picked up in a Swiss boarding school, which he attended under an alias.
Classmates said he was quiet and seemed to be shy or sullen and uncomfortable with women.
They said he is an avid skier, a devoted reader of Japanese manga comics, an avid computer-game player, and fanatical about basketball — particularly the fortunes of the Chicago Bulls.
“He yearned to become a pro basketball player in the United States,” a former schoolmate at the International School of Bern told Japan’s NHK TV network.
But his hoop dreams were doomed by extra pounds, apparently due to lack of exercise and diabetes, as well as high blood pressure and what are believed to be the effects of a car accident.
His name was virtually a national secret until September 2010, when his father named him to several top government posts, including making him a member of the powerful Central Military Commission.
The state propaganda machine called him the “Young General” and the “Brilliant Comrade” and later the “Respected General,” before he was elevated, by his father’s death, to “Great Successor.”
The government also promoted a song, “Footsteps,” which appears to refer to his role in carrying on his family’s legacy. There were also hints that he was computer-savvy, when the heavy-handed state media repeatedly aired “Song of CNC,” or Computerized Numerical Control, better known elsewhere as digital technology.
But like his father, a former playboy who remained in obscurity for years as he was groomed for the top spot, much about Jong Un remains a mystery.
“There is a rumor that he is married, but officially we don’t know,” said Yoon Deok-ryong, of the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy in Seoul, South Korea. Jong Un’s mother is believed to have been a Japanese-born dancer who died several years ago. But nobody knows for sure.
One of the very few outsiders to get to know the “Great Successor” is Kim Jong Il’s sushi chef, Kenji Fujimoto, who has been in hiding, fearing execution by North Korean assassins since he fled. He described Jong Un as “a chip off the old block, a spitting image of his father in terms of face, body shape and personality.”
The chef said when he first met the boy he was dressed in a military uniform, and he “glared at me with a menacing look when we shook hands.” Fujimoto added, “I can never forget the look in his eyes, which seemed to be saying, ‘This one is a despicable Japanese.’ ”
As he was elevated, a wider audience has come to know Jong Un as a fearsome figure.
After he gave his good wishes to North Korea’s national soccer team last year — and the team lost all three World Cup matches — the members were forced to stand outside the People’s Palace of Culture in Pyongyang and be denounced by students and fellow athletes because they had betrayed the heir apparent.
Lengthy Mourning for Kim Jong-il
Kim Il-sung (L), founder of North Korea, chats with his son Kim Jong-il
The mourning for Kim Jong-il is likely to be long and widely felt. If what happened after his father’s death is any clue, grieving over the North Korean leader will continue over a long period and will be felt at all levels of North Korean society.
While the country announced that official mourning would occur through Dec. 29, it almost certainly will extend past that. The nation was planning a grand celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, the country’s founder and Kim Jong il’s father, on April 15, 2012. That celebration is now likely to be a somber event.
Among other impacts of the Dear Leader’s demise, North Korea may stop sending its delegations to international sports competitions, as it did when Kim Il-sung died in July 1994. Pyongyang fully resumed participation in sports only two years later, at the Atlanta Olympics, according to Japan’s Kyodo News. The halt in sports activities coincided with a period during which North Korea’s chronic food shortage deteriorated into a full-fledged famine.
The official announcement said flags will be lowered to half-staff and all forms of entertainment will cease, but there will be more beyond that.
Hwang Jang-yop, North Korea’s highest-ranking defector—he was a former secretary of the rulingNorth Korean Workers Party in charge of international affairs—said before his death in 2010 that the entire country was “swept up in tears” after Kim Il-sung’s death in 1994, partly because “anything other than mourning was not allowed.”
According to Hwang—whose comments are taken from the book Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader by Bradley Martin—the Workers’ Party carried out surveys on who displayed the most grief, and made this a criterion to evaluate the loyalty of party members. This means the outside world will likely see more videos of distraught North Koreans wailing loudly, flailing their arms, and paying their respects to various memorials and statues in Pyongyang.
In some ways, North Korea never really moved on after Kim Il-sung’s death. Kim Jong-il never took the title of president, which his father held, and which remains vacant. Officially, Kim Jong-il was only chairman of the National Defense Committee. This was meant not only to show his filial piety but also to strengthen the family cult, Kim Jong-il’s only source of legitimacy. Kim Jong-un may follow that tradition.
If the dynastic cult is promoted, towers could be built for Kim Jong-il, which is what occurred after his father, the Great Leader, died. Numerous monuments, called the “Towers of Eternal Life”—white, obelisk structures—were constructed nationwide to honor Kim Il-sung. A giant, 92.5-meter version is in Pyongyang, and is a popular destination for people paying their respects on special occasions.
Kim Jong Il’s body also may be embalmed. His father’s is, and is on public display at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace.
Meanwhile, North Korea analysts will be closely following preparations for the funeral on December 28, as well as the funeral itself. In a country as closed and secretive as North Korea, the order of names on the funeral committee is an important clue to assess who is in charge. source:
The two-day state funeral is to begin at the Kamsusan Memorial Palace on Dec. 28. North Korean officials say they will not invite foreign delegations and will allow no entertainment during the mourning period.
Since Kim’s death the media have stepped up their lavish praise of the son, indicating an effort to strengthen a cult of personality around him similar to that of his father and — much more strongly — of Kim Il Sung.
The Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday described Kim Jong Un as “a great person born of heaven,” a propaganda term previously used only for his father and grandfather. The Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the ruling Workers’ Party, added in an editorial that Kim Jong Un is “the spiritual pillar and the lighthouse of hope” for the military and the people.
http://www.koreanwar-educator.org/topics/korea_today/p_korea_today_human_rights.htm
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