Everything—our parents, family, home, neighborhood, school, country—revolves around us. For most people, what follows is a long process of dethronement, as His Majesty the Child confronts the ever more obvious and humbling truth. Not so for Kim. His world at age 5 has turned out to be his world at age 30 … Everyone does exist to serve him. These tools allowed him to validate his persecution of any real or suspected dissenters, and to maintain a horrific network of prison camps in which torture, rape, beatings, and a variety of other human rights violations continue to take place to this day, as they have done for many decades.
As the U. The markings on the street are for military parades—a hallmark of dictatorships the world over. As a scholar of U. Kim Jong-un seems determined to avoid that fate. Kim has adopted the mantle of the mythical, godlike leadership role that grandfather and country founder Kim Il-sung and his father Kim Jong-il held and continue to hold in their death.
But he seems determined to chart his own path. Kim has allowed himself to seem more transparent and accessible than his father.
He appears in public with his pretty and fashionable young wife, Ri Sol-ju with whom he has at least one child, and possibly three. He hugs, holds hands, and links arms with men, women, and children, seeming comfortable with both young and old. That transparency has been extended to the government.
When one of its satellite launches failed in April , the regime admitted the failure publicly, the first time it had ever done so. During his frequent public appearances, Jong-un can be seen giving guidance at various economic, military, and social and cultural venues, as his father and grandfather did, but he is also shown pulling weeds, riding roller coasters, navigating a tank, and galloping on a horse.
He is comfortable with technology in the form of cell phones and laptops, and is also portrayed speaking earnestly with nuclear scientists and overseeing scores of missile tests. Kim appears to want to reinforce the impression that he is young, vigorous, on the move—qualities that he attributes to his country as well.
Speaking directly to the people in April in that first public speech he gave as their leader, he confidently promised that North Koreans would no longer have to tighten their belts. Later he announced his byungjin policy: that North Korea can have both its nuclear weapons and prosperity. Animated by the optimism of one whose privilege made him believe anything was possible, he has prioritized both these issues and personally taken ownership of them—all part of creating and nurturing his brand.
For the toiling masses as well as for the elite, Ri, the glamorous and devoted wife, is an aspirational figure. Even as tension with the United States went into overdrive after a sixth nuclear test and the launch of numerous ballistic missiles during the summer and fall of , state media showed Kim and his wife touring a North Korean cosmetics factory.
But what of the lives of the average people? Kim may also be using the imagery of these amenities as a corrective, a way of undermining the dominant external narrative of a decaying, starving, economically hobbled North Korea.
Of course, Kim still has enormous power and, like his father and grandfather, the willingness to hold onto it through extreme brutality. He maintains control through purges and executions—punishments and acts of revenge he appears to inflict with relish. Kim has made it clear that he will not tolerate any potential challengers. Kim Jong—un has overseen four nuclear tests and debuted ballistic missiles of various ranges, launched from multiple locations.
For the past six years, Kim has poked and prodded, testing and pushing the boundaries of international tolerance for his actions, calculating that he can handle whatever punishment is meted out.
To a large extent, he has maintained the initiative on the Korean Peninsula, to the frustration of the United States and his neighbors. And as the U. Although that space launch failed, North Korea, despite international condemnation of the April test, had success with its next attempt, when it launched a satellite into orbit in December By portraying Kim Jong-un as a hands-on leader who personally ordered the rocket launch from a satellite command center, the state media framed their new leader as bold and action-oriented even in the face of widespread international censure.
Under Kim, North Korea has pressed the accelerator on nuclear and missile development and has codified its status as a nuclear-armed state by inscribing that description into the revised constitution it issued in Kim has overseen three more nuclear tests, and debuted and tested new ballistic missiles of various ranges from multiple locations, including a submarine-launched ballistic missile and, in July and November , intercontinental ballistic missiles. North Korea shows every indication of making rapid progress toward the ability to threaten the United States and its allies, while also developing an arsenal for survivable second-strike options in the event of a conflict.
In November , North Korea tested intercontinental ballistic missiles with a potential reach of 8, miles—putting the entire United States in range. In North Korea regime, power stemmed from the Party.
In particular, organization and propaganda formed the core of Party activity. Kim Jong-il had prepared for his ascent to power through taking office in sectors dealing with these very tasks as well as working as a member of the Political Bureau, another core of power within the KWP.
This website is sponsored by the Korea Communications Commission. Archive Korean Peninsula A to Z. North Korean leader. A young Kim Jong-il and his mother, Kim Jung-sook middle. Baekdu, Yang-gang Province. Tagged Series.
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