Kim Jong-un

Supreme leader of North Korea

• Born: January 8, 1983
• Place of Birth: Pyongyang, North Korea

Kim Jong-un became the supreme leader of North Korea in 2011 following the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, who had ruled the country since 1994. Following his education, Kim was designated as "the great successor" in late 2010 with his promotion to the rank of four-star general. After taking control of the country he continued the totalitarian regime established by his father and grandfather, suppressing opposition and carrying out nuclear tests despite international outcry. Kim's leadership was also marked by historic summits with the leaders of North Korea's longtime foes South Korea and the United States in 2018. Despite these attempts at diplomacy, North Korea's relations with South Korea and the US continued to deteriorate into the 2020s as Kim led the country in continued pursuit of its nuclear weapons program's objectives.

Early Life

Kim Jong-un's official birth date is given as January 8, although the exact year is uncertain. Previously reported as 1983, the birth year was cited as 1982 by some North Korean officials beginning in the early twenty-first century. Some speculate that this change was made so that Kim would be thirty in 2012, a year important to the North Korean regime as it marked the centenary of the birth of Kim's grandfather, Kim Il-sung, who founded North Korea and led the country from 1948 through 1994.

Kim's father, Kim Jong-il, became leader of the country in 1994. His mother was Ko Yong-hui, a Japanese opera singer who had immigrated to North Korea at some point during the 1960s, was Kim Jong-il's third wife. Ko died of breast cancer in 2004.

Kim is believed to have attended the International School in Bern, Switzerland, under the pseudonym Pak-un. His fellow students thought Kim was the son of a driver for the North Korean embassy, which is located near the school. According to his classmates, Kim enjoyed sports, including basketball and football, and was a fan of Belgian actor and martial artist Jean-Claude Van Damme. In January 2000, around age fifteen, Kim returned to North Korea.

Heir Apparent

Kim Jong-un was born into a dynastic regime begun by his grandfather and continued by his father. A cult of personality was carefully established by both leaders. (For instance, Kim Jong-il is said to have been born at the foot of a sacred Korean mountain, underneath a double rainbow, although international opinion holds that the leader was most likely born in the Soviet Union.) In the early twenty-first century, evidence of a cult of personality forming around Kim Jong-un began to accumulate. For instance, in 2009, it was announced that Kim would be known as "Brilliant Comrade," a title reminiscent of those given to his father and grandfather ("Supreme Leader" and "Eternal Leader," respectively).

The youngest of Kim Jong-il's sons, Kim Jong-un was apparently favored over his two brothers. His older half brother, Kim Jong-nam, fell out of favor with their father in 2001 when he was caught trying to enter Japan with a forged passport and was later exiled from North Korea. Kim Jong-un's older brother, Kim Jong-chul, was rumored to have been too sensitive for their father to choose him as a successor. In February 2017, Kim Jong-nam was attacked at an airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, by two women with the nerve agent VX, and he subsequently died. South Korean and US government officials speculated that Kim Jong-nam's death was ordered by Kim Jong-un.

Political Life

Information on Kim following his education in Switzerland is scarce; however, in September 2010, North Korea's state news agency revealed that Kim had been appointed a four-star general as well as vice chair of the Workers' Party's Central Military Commission (DPRK). This announcement marked the first time Kim had been mentioned by the state-run media. Many saw this as an indication that the young man was being groomed to take over leadership after the death of his father, who is thought to have suffered a stroke in 2008. In October 2010, Kim Jong-un was introduced to the public during a military parade in the country's capital, Pyongyang.

Kim, who was in Europe during North Korea's famine of the 1990s and whose military and political experience was limited, may have been seen as an outsider by the political and military elite of North Korea. Following a North Korean artillery strike on South Korea in November 2010, many analysts and news agencies contended that Kim Jong-un, along with his father, had ordered the attack as a means of bolstering the younger Kim's military record.

Kim Jong-il died on December 18, 2011. Kim Jong-un was named by the government as his father's successor. He also took his father's seats in the Workers' Party of Korea, the Politburo Presidium, and the Central Military Commission. When he took power, it became known that he was married to Ri Sol-ju, said to be a former singer with the Unhasu Orchestra. Ri reportedly gave birth to a daughter, Kim Ju-ae, in 2012. He is believed to have two other children as well. The same year, Kim Jong-un was promoted to wonsu, or marshal, the highest rank in the North Korean military.

Throughout 2012 and 2013, it was reported that Kim was carrying out purges of government ministers and military leaders who had been loyal to his father in order to replace them with officials he had hand-picked. Among those purged was Kim's uncle Jang Sung-taek, whom Kim had executed along with several members of his family who also held government positions in December 2013. Also during this time, Kim carried out a number of nuclear tests, which were widely condemned by the international community and resulted in sanctions from the United Nations Security Council.

In March 2014, Kim ran unopposed for a seat on the Supreme People's Assembly, North Korea's unicameral legislature. Voters were given the option of voting "yes" or "no" on Kim's election to the legislature; according to government officials, 100 percent of voters chose "yes." In the fall of 2014, Kim disappeared from the public eye for over a month, leading to much speculation that he had died or been deposed. However, he reappeared in mid-October, and his absence was explained as the result of unspecified ongoing health problems.

Despite already being the most powerful individual in North Korea and holding numerous titles, in May 2016 he was named chair of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), which elevated his power within the government even more.

Weapons Programs and International Tensions

North Korea committed to an "all-fortressization" program in the early 1960s and began trying to purchase nuclear weapons from foreign countries at that time. In 2002, Pakistan admitted that North Korea had been in possession of Pakistan's nuclear technology since the late 1990s. The pursuit of nuclear capability continued under Kim Jong-un. In February 2012 North Korea agreed to halt all nuclear and long-range missile testing, but violations soon emerged. After a failed attempt, North Korea successfully launched a long-range rocket to send a satellite into orbit. The United States interpreted these launches as attempts to shield North Korea's work on and testing of long-range ballistic missile technology. In 2013, the US Geological Survey (USGS) confirmed that North Korea had performed its third underground nuclear test, which was immediately condemned by the international community and landed additional United Nations sanctions on the country.

In mid-2014, the North Korean government claimed to have successfully tested a submarine-launched missile. By 2016, claims were made that hydrogen-bomb tests were performed. In February 2016, North Korea successfully launched another satellite into space, and it conducted another nuclear test in September 2016. In February 2017, North Korea fired a ballistic missile that flew about 500 kilometers before landing in the sea, and in March 2017 the country tested a new high-thrust rocket engine. The tests led to increasing tensions with the United States, as did incidents such as the January 2016 arrest of visiting American student Otto Warmbier by North Korean authorities. Warmbier was released in June 2017 but returned to the United States in a comatose state, where he died shortly after his arrival. Despite North Korean claims otherwise, several US officials accused North Korea of involvement in the death. US senator John McCain, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee at that time, asserted that Warmbier had been "murdered by the Kim Jong-un regime."

Tensions between the United States and Kim's government were heightened further in late 2017, after it was reported that North Korea had completed one of its most powerful nuclear tests yet. US President Donald Trump, who had already issued threats to North Korea, became embroiled in a public exchange of insults with Kim. Further North Korean missile tests and threats of war followed.

Kim's foreign policy appeared to evolve significantly in 2018. In a speech honoring the new year he emphasized an effort to defuse military tensions between North and South Korea. He also indicated his wish to have a delegation participate in the Winter Olympic Games held in South Korea that year. Though some analysts suggested Kim aimed to create a divide between South Korea and the United States, the idea of peace talks proved popular in South Korea. An agreement was indeed reached for North Koreans to partake in the Olympics, and plans were made for a summit between Kim and South Korean president Moon Jae-in. On April 27, 2018, Kim met with Moon in South Korea, marking the first time a North Korean leader had crossed the contested border. The leaders signed the Panmunjom Declaration, in which they pledged to reach a full peace agreement and complete denuclearization, and further meetings followed.

Building on the apparent success of the inter-Korean summit, Kim also agreed to a meeting with President Trump. After tense negotiations and a temporary cancellation, the historic summit, the first ever between sitting heads of North Korea and the United States, took place on June 12, 2018, in Singapore. Both leaders subsequently announced the meeting was a success that heralded a major shift in US-North Korean relations. However, no binding plans were made and international observers expressed skepticism after North Korea was reported to be continuing its missile development programs. Still, tensions declined from the near state of war seen in 2017. Kim and Trump met again in February 2019 in Vietnam. That round of talks ended quickly after Trump turned down Kim's offer to dismantle North Korea's nuclear facility but retain its weapons program in return for a full lifting of sanctions.

In April 2019 Kim opened yet another angle of his foreign policy, meeting for the first time with Russian President Vladimir Putin. As in the summits with South Korea and the United States, topics reportedly included North Korea's nuclear and missile programs. He met with Trump again in June 2019, before being awarded the Jubilee Medal "75 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" by Putin in May 2020. The same month, Kim disappeared from the public view for several weeks before reappearing at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Many speculated on the reason behind his disappearance, with some news sources suggesting he had died amid the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic; however, no official statement was made explaining why he was missing from public view. In October 2020, he oversaw a parade marking the foundation of the WPK that exhibited what was deemed one of the world's biggest intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Shortly before the inauguration of US President Joe Biden in January 2021, Kim began the Eighth Congress of the Workers' Party with a speech in which he pointedly addressed the regime's inability to meet the goals set during 2016's congress regarding bolstering the country's struggling economy, with conditions having been exacerbated by international sanctions and the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to outlining a new economic plan, he used this event to further emphasize a commitment to strengthening the nation's nuclear deterrent as well as declare the United States to be North Korea's primary enemy. Days later, he presided over a parade that saw the unveiling of a submarine-launched missile. After acknowledging that the country was experiencing a shortage of food in April, he oversaw a military parade in early September.

In May 2022 North Korea reported confirmed cases of COVID-19 for the first time; while Kim and his government had previously claimed success in preventing the spread of the disease to North Korea, many international observers suspected that the country had experienced outbreaks prior to that point. In response to the May outbreak, which the government blamed on the fast-spreading Omicron variant of COVID-19, Kim declared a public health emergency and ordered a nationwide lockdown. By the end of May, Kim claimed that the outbreak had been contained.

Meanwhile, throughout 2022, Kim continued to oversee the North Korean missile program. The country conducted seven missile tests during the first four weeks of 2022 and continued testing throughout the year. During a test in September, one of North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) failed mid-flight; however, the missile still traveled far enough to trigger Japan's emergency missile warning system. That month, Kim affirmed North Korea's status as a nuclear weapon state and promised that the country would never give up its nuclear weapons. This proclamation came as the country's government passed new laws laying out the conditions under which these weapons could be used. In November, Kim presided over the launch of what the country called a new form of intercontinental ballistic missile. Official photographs of this launch depict his daughter at his side.

In September 2023, Kim visited Russia. The six-day visit included a tour of the Yuri Gagarin Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Plant (KnAAZ), during which Kim viewed the inside of a Russian fighter jet and toured other military facilities. The visit followed Kim's apparent backing of Russia in the ongoing hostilities with Ukraine that began in February 2022. Putin indicated that the two countries should be good neighbors and that military cooperation between them was an option. Putin's visit to North Korea just nine months later, in June 2024, resulted in the signing of a strategic partnership pact between Russia and North Korea, Russian sources reported at the time. This concerned Western leaders. These concerns grew in September 2024 when the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) took the unusual step of publishing photos of Kim touring what was said to be a uranium enrichment facility producing weapons-grade nuclear material. During the same week as the enrichment facility visit, during a speech celebrating the seventy-sixth anniversary of North Korea's founding, Kim promised to continue stepping up the country's nuclear war capabilities.

Western Leanings

Although he largely continued the authoritarian legacy of his father and grandfather, Kim Jong-un at times departed from protocol in his rule. For instance, while Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il chose to keep their wives and mistresses out of the public eye, Ri Sol-ju has been by her husband's side at several state functions and events. In early 2013, American former professional basketball player Dennis Rodman traveled to North Korea on Kim Jong-un's invitation. Rodman was entertained by the leader and accompanied him to a basketball game. Furthermore, Kim Jong-un was perceived as being more engaging with soldiers and workers than his predecessors and showed interest in more Western activities and culture, despite his ban on such Western influences as blue jeans and body piercings.

Bibliography

Bowden, Mark. "Understanding Kim Jong Un, the World's Most Enigmatic and Unpredictable Dictator." Vanity Fair, Mar. 2015, www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/02/kim-jong-un-north-korea-understanding. Accessed 25 Sept. 2024.

Choe Sang-Hun. "Kim Jong-un Is Back. What Happens When He's Really Gone?" The New York Times, 2 May 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/05/02/world/asia/kim-jong-un-alive.html. Accessed 25 Sept. 2024.

Choe Sang-Hun. "North Korea Party Congress Opens with Kim Jong-un Admitting Failures." The New York Times, 5 Jan. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/01/05/world/asia/north-korea-kim-jong-un-party-congress.html. Accessed 25 Sept. 2024.

Choe Sang-Hun. "North Korean Leader Tells Congress His Nuclear Program Brings 'Dignity.'" The New York Times, 6 May 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/05/07/world/asia/north-korea-congress.html. Accessed 25 Sept. 2024.

Choi, David. "John McCain: Otto Warmbier Was 'Murdered by the Kim Jong-un Regime.'" Business Insider, 19 June 2017, www.businessinsider.com/otto-warmbier-murdered-by-north-korea-john-mccain-statement-2017-6. Accessed 25 Sept. 2024.

Goldman, Russell. "DNA Confirms Assassination Victim Was Half Brother of Kim Jong-un, Malaysia Says." The New York Times, 15 Mar. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/world/asia/kim-jong-nam-dna-malaysia.html. Accessed 25 Sept. 2024.

Kim, Hyung-Jin. "North Korea Is Gearing Up for a Fifth Nuclear Test." Business Insider, 27 Apr. 2016, www.businessinsider.com/seoul-north-korea-is-gearing-up-for-a-fifth-nuclear-test-2016-4. Accessed 25 Sept. 2024.

"Kim Jong Un Fast Facts." CNN, 19 June 2024, www.cnn.com/2012/12/26/world/asia/kim-jong-un---fast-facts/index.html. Accessed 25 Sept. 2024.

"Kim Jong Un's War Games: North Korea Tests Another Missile." The Economist, 8 Feb. 2016, www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2016/02/daily-chart-6. Accessed 25 Sept. 2024.

"North Korea Declares Itself a Nuclear Weapons State." NPR, 10 Sept. 2022, www.npr.org/2022/09/10/1122196021/north-korea-declares-itself-a-nuclear-weapons-state. Accessed 25 Sept. 2024.

"North Korea's Nuclear Weapons: Here Is All We Know." Al Jazeera, 20 Feb. 2018, www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/05/north-korea-testing-nuclear-weapons-170504072226461.html. Accessed 25 Sept. 2024.

Paddock, Richard C. "Lawyers for Women in Kim Jong-nam Case Say They Were Scapegoated." The New York Times, 13 Apr. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/04/13/world/asia/kim-jong-nam-assassination-north-korea-malaysia.html. Accessed 25 Sept. 2024.

"Profile: Kim Jong-un, North Korea's Supreme Commander." BBC, 11 Sept. 2023, www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11388628. Accessed 25 Sept. 2024.

Sanger, David E., and Choe Sang-Hun. "North Korean Nuclear Test Draws U.S. Warning of 'Massive Military Response.'" The New York Times, 6 Nov. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/09/03/world/asia/north-korea-tremor-possible-6th-nuclear-test.html. Accessed 25 Sept. 2024.

Seo, Yoonjung et al. "North Korea Releases Images of Kim Jong Un Visiting a Uranium Enrichment Site, Giving Rare Glimpse Inside its Nuclear Program." CNN, 13 Sept. 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/12/asia/north-korea-uranium-enrichment-intl-hnk/index.html. Accessed 25 Sept. 2024.

Shin, Mitch. "North Korea Declares Itself a Nuclear Weapons State." The Diplomat, 6 Jan. 2021, thediplomat.com/2021/01/what-is-the-truth-about-covid-19-in-north-korea/. Accessed 25 Sept. 2024.