The Son Also Rises

On Sept. 27, Kim Jong Un was named to a lofty post in North Korea's army, presumably in preparation to succeed his father as the country's ruler. FP looks at the world's autocrats-in-training who are waiting to take over their fathers' regimes.

BY JOSHUA KEATING AND CHARLES HOMANS | SEPTEMBER 28, 2010

Ruler: Kim Jong Il, North Korea

Son: Kim Jong Un

Age: 27 or 28

Heir Jordan: No one outside North Korea had seen a photograph of Kim Jong Un as an adult until April, when the government-run Korean Central News Agency released an image of Kim Jong Il touring a steel plant with a 20-something man dressed in a dark suit and a red tie. North Korea watchers believed at the time it was Kim the younger, who Kenji Fujimoto, Kim Jong Il's former personal chef, describes as "a chip off the old block, a spitting image of his father in terms of face, body shape and personality."

Facts about Kim fils -- who was named a four-star general in the North Korean army at a landmark congress of the North Korean Workers' Party on Sept. 27, possibly in anticipation of succeeding his ailing father -- are hard to come by. He attended an international boarding school in Bern, Switzerland, under a pseudonym until he was 15; his former classmates describe him as a shy boy who loved Michael Jordan, skiing, and action movies. He is the youngest of Kim Jong Il's three sons, but believed to be his favorite. Kim Jong Nam, Jong Un's older half brother, was assumed to be the designated heir until he disgraced himself in 2001, getting caught trying to enter Japan on a fake passport. ("I wanted to go to Disneyland," he told police.) Kim Jong Chul, Jong Un's older brother, is considered by Jong Il to be "no good because he is like a little girl," according to Fujimoto.

Jong Un's presumed succession, however, will be considerably more difficult than his father's. Jong Il was named Kim Il Sung's heir two decades before assuming the reins of the family business. Jong Un, by contrast, may have only a few years before his father's health gives out. And he will inherit a country that is down at the heels even by North Korean standards: A disastrous currency revaluation last winter has reportedly thrown what is left of the country's economy into chaos, leaving many North Koreans desperately hungry and fomenting a worsening discontent with the Kim regime that has broken into the open in the form of riots. As a neophyte to intrigue within the Workers' Party and military elite, Jong Un could have power struggles on his hands should his father's health fail suddenly. And he has a rival in his aunt Kim Kyong Hui, Jong Il's reportedly vindictive and abusive sister, who was promoted alongside Jong Un on Monday and may be charged with shepherding his development.

Image used on the homepage:  Kok Leng Yeo/Flickr

Above: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images

 

Joshua Keating and Charles Homans are associate editors of Foreign Policy.

CAMAELJAX

2:59 AM ET

September 29, 2010

And let us not forget...

And let us not forget the polirical dynasties and nepotism of that farcical spectacle they call liberal democracy in the West....
- The Bush dynasty featuring Prescott Bush, George Bush I who was Head of the CIA and President, George HW Bush who was a failed busnessman, governor of Texas and President in rapid succession, and Jeb Bush who was governor of Florida and presumed future Presidential candidate.
- The Kennedy dynasty
- The Clinton dynasty - President Bill Clinton, his wife Hillary who was a strong Presidential candidate and is now Secretary of State, and Chelsea Clinton waiting in the wings with a proclaimed intent for poltiical office
- The UK, where two brothers, Ed and David, Energy and Foreign Minister under Brown respectively, and heirs of Ralph Milliband's political dynasty just dueled each other in a pantomime of a Labour leadership contest.
etc. etc

And for those who woud say - "but its different in the West, we ELECT our own neo-aristocrats in "real" elections - I ask, what does it say then about the sincerity and transparency of Western political structures and systems that the results are the same dynasties and nepotism as under the above highligted 'dictatorships'? Enjoy the show...

 

DBLARSEN314

12:34 PM ET

September 29, 2010

agreed

Cameljax... for some reason we like to put ourselves on a pedestal. One of the reasons I didn't like Hillary was because if she was elected we would have the presidents of the last 24 year from two families...our country has been hijacked and we refuse to admit it.

 

SEO TODD

2:43 PM ET

October 2, 2010

Hopeful

We have had our fair share of "dynasties" and unfortunately those will continue. Money and power are centered in elite pockets of influence in the Western World, and given time, the pattern continues regardless.
Todd, SEO Company

 

NICKL

2:54 PM ET

October 15, 2010

some thoughts so-called "princess of Uzbeks"

A very good article, but I´d like to comment on this:
"As a Western-educated woman and Harvard graduate, even someone as well-connected as Gulnara might have difficulty taking power in a conservative Muslim society such as Uzbekistan."

Sorry, but she is not western-educated, she is soviet-educated; at Harvard , she took one-year or so course. The rest (her PhD, etc degrees along with her design) is bought/stolen.

I lived in Uzbekistan for some years: it is not that conservative muslim land (after 70 years under Russia/communism). Anyway, that would not be the reason for her to be a successor. She is most hated and feared person over there. She is not a sort of naive Marie-Antoinette (with her famous phrase on the poor "Let them eat cakes!"), she is as dangerouse, as her dad.
Yet ... Many in the country (Uzbekistan) are afraid that for the west (USA and EU) she is the most suitable successor of the Butcher of Andijan, her dad. An agessive PR campaign is launched now to create an image of G:K as a humanitarian, intellectual, and she speaks on behalf of the nation, (never in Uzbek though, mostly in Russian).
But thank you for the article, pity that people in Uzbekistan cannot read it: such websites are blocked.