Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Times Online:

Kim Jong Un, the 25-year old youngest son of the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Il, has been formally declared as his successor, the South Korean media reported yesterday, in the latest sign of dramatic change in the isolated totalitarian state.

North Korea’s Worker’s Party, the country’s token parliament and cabinet were notified of the succession soon after the country’s second nuclear test, according to sources quoted by the Yonhap news agency and two Seoul newspapers. There were conflicting reports over whether foreign embassies had also been notified.

The news seems to confirm what has become increasingly clear for the past few months – that, after a serious illness last summer, 67-year old Kim Jong Il is preparing for his family’s continued rule of North Korea’s 25 million people, after he is gone.

It is a wish to offset the atmosphere of insecurity and uncertainty created by this transition, many North Korea watchers believe, that has led Mr Kim Snr to put on recent displays of confidence and strength, including last week’s underground nuclear test.

This morning, the Seoul media were reporting that North Korea has increased its military activity in the Yellow Sea, where it has a tense and disputed sea border with South Korea, the site of previous minor naval battles.

The North was also reported to be preparing to test fire a medium range missile from its southeast coast in a move apparently designed to further rattle South Korea and Japan.

Outside the upper ranks of the Pyongyang elite, few North Koreans are even aware of the existence of Jong Un, and there is probably a long way to go before he is publicly named. When Kim Jong Il took over from his own father, North Korea’s founding leader, Kim Il Sung, he emerged from obscurity over the course of several years, serving in successively more important government and party posts.

Concern about the North Korean succession has been intense since last summer when Kim Jong Il disappeared from public view for three months after apparently suffering a stroke.

During his convalescence, his 62-year old brother-in-law, Chang Sung Taek, is said to have taken over his responsibilities. It is still possible that Jong Un may eventually serve as no more than a figurehead while real power lies with older and more experienced leaders.

Jong Un was born in 1983 and, as the youngest of three known sons of Kim Jong Il, he might have been expected to remain subordinate to his older brothers, in keeping with Confucian tradition.

His half-brother, Jong Nam, is 37 or 38, the son of his father’s first wife, a famous North Korean film star, who died in exile in 2002 after separating from Mr Kim. In 2001 he suffered a humiliation when he was detained for travelling in Japan on a trip to visit Tokyo Disneyland with his family. He is occasionally spotted in the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau.

Jong Un, and his 28-year old brother, Jong Chul, were born to Koh Young Hee, a Japanese-Korean dancer. Before her death from breast cancer in 2004, state media had referred to her as “respected mother”, suggesting that one of her boys was being groomed for the leadership.

All the sons were educated in an exclusive private boarding school in Switzerland. According to Kenji Fujimoto, a Japanese who worked as personal sushi chef to Kim Jong Il and knew both the young “princes” well, it was obvious from his childhood that Jong Un would eventually take over from his father.

“The older brother, Jong Chul, had the warm heart of a girl,” he told The Times. “The younger prince, Jong Un was a boy of inner strength.”

As teenagers, the boys played basketball and, even after casual games among friends, Jong Un would coach his teammates and analyse the successes and failures of their matches. “The first time I met him he was seven years old, and he looked at me as if I was an evil Japanese who had done terrible things to Koreans in the war,” said Mr Fujimoto. “I was impressed that even as a young boy he tried to analyse people he met.”

As a boy, Jong Un drove a Mercedes Benz with specially adapted pedals and seat around the grounds of Kim Jong Il’s home. He liked Chinese food and sushi, especially squid and the finest cuts of tuna, and used to smoke Mr Fujimoto’s menthol cigarettes

“If power is to be handed over then Jong Un is the best for it,” Mr Fujimoto said. “He has superb physical gifts, is a big drinker and never admits defeat.”