Profile of Kim Jong-un

Kim Jong-un is the youngest son of Kim Jong-il and his third wife Ko Young-hee born in 1983(or 1984, sources vary). At first, he was not at the centre of attention. North Korea watchers focused on his half-brother Kim Jong-nam and full brother Kim Jong-hol rather than him.

Then in 2009, speculations came that his reported appointment to the National Defence Commission meant Kim Jong-il had picked him as a successor. The National Defence Commission is the most important governing body in North Korea and Kim Jong-il ruled the country as the Commission’s Chairman.

Not many things are told about him. In 2003, a Japanese man wrote a book <I was Kim Jong-il’s chef> with the pseudonym Kenji Fujimoto and claimed that Kim Jong-un was Kim Jong-il’s favourite son. His mother Koh Young-hee, a performer in a leading North Korean dance troupe is allegedly Kim Jong-il’s favourite wife and also reportedly called him the ‘Morning Star King”.

Her death in 2004 from breast cancer was bad news for him but Kim Jong-nam’s deportation from Japan in May 2001 and Kim Jong-chol’s apparent ‘unmanly character’ afterwards improved his chances.

Like his brothers, he attended an international school in Switzerland but avoided Western influences, returning home when not in school and dining out with the North Korean diplomats. He is believed to have graduated in 1998 and then returned to North Korea to study military science at Kim Il-sung Military University between 2002 and 2006.

He is reported to be a fan of NBA basketball but said to have diabetes and heart disease due to a lack of exercise.