Kim Jong Un
Overview
Kim Jong Un is the supreme leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). After inheriting power following Kim Jong Il's death in December 2011, he established himself as the country's de facto ruler from the following year, 2012. He is the general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the State Affairs Commission, and holds the rank of marshal in the Korean People's Army. Since taking power, he has pursued a line of advancing nuclear and missile capabilities while simultaneously carrying out economic construction, and after a series of summits in 2018–2019, he shifted policy in the 2020s toward fundamentally redefining the framework of inter-Korean and North Korea–U.S. relations.
Main Content
Birth and Early Career
Kim Jong Un is the third son of Kim Jong Il. His birth year is known to be January 8, 1984, but North Korean authorities have not officially confirmed it, and some sources also maintain the 1982 theory. There are many reports that he studied in Switzerland as a child, and he is assessed to have been designated as Kim Jong Il's successor from the late 1990s. He began appearing in key military and party posts around 2009, and in September 2010, at the Third Conference of the Workers' Party of Korea, he simultaneously received the posts of vice chairman of the Party Central Military Commission and the title of general in the Korean People's Army, formalizing the succession structure.
Power Succession and Leadership System
Immediately after Kim Jong Il's death in December 2011, he successively inherited the top posts of the party, military, and state, and in April 2012 became First Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and First Chairman of the National Defense Commission. At the 7th Party Congress in 2016, he was elected party chairman and launched the State Affairs Commission system, and at the 8th Party Congress in 2021 he received the title of general secretary, completing the authority system of the Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il eras. In the early period of his rule, he emphasized policy implementation through the cabinet and party organizations, but he has increasingly combined an operating style that prioritizes decisions of the Party Central Committee with frequent on-site guidance and symbolic rule through large-scale military parades.
Economy and Nuclear Forces Policy
In the early period of his rule, he adopted the so-called 'byungjin line' of simultaneously pursuing nuclear forces and economic construction, but in April 2018, at the Third Plenary Meeting of the Seventh Central Committee, he declared a transition to an 'all-out concentration on economic construction line' along with the completion of nuclear forces. At the 8th Party Congress in 2021, he presented a new five-year plan centered on self-reliance and the use of internal resources, and in September 2023, an amendment specifying the nuclear forces policy in the constitution was made at the Supreme People's Assembly. In 2024, he set the modernization of local industrial factories and rural development as major tasks and announced the 'Regional Development 20×10 Policy,' placing considerable weight on improving the internal economy.
Foreign Relations
Inter-Korean dialogue resumed on the occasion of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, and in April of the same year the Panmunjom inter-Korean summit, in June the Singapore North Korea–U.S. summit, and in September the Pyongyang inter-Korean summit were held in succession. The February 2019 Hanoi North Korea–U.S. summit failed to produce an agreement, but in June of the same year a meeting of the leaders of the two Koreas and the United States took place at Panmunjom. As the negotiation phase subsequently stalled, North Korea turned toward defining inter-Korean relations not as 'fellow countrymen' but as 'hostile states,' and in January 2024 the Supreme People's Assembly declared the abandonment of the peaceful unification line and reorganized unification-related organizations. Meanwhile, in June 2024, it signed a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty with Russia, greatly expanding strategic cooperative relations.
Latest Trends
The main characteristics of the Kim Jong Un regime in 2024–2025 can be summarized as polarization in external policy and strengthened internal unity. At the Workers' Party plenary meeting at the end of 2024, it proclaimed a 'strongest hard-line response' strategy toward the United States and reaffirmed its will to continue nuclear and missile development, and observations have been raised in the international community that military and economic cooperation for implementing the treaty with Russia is continuing. Tensions in the border areas between the two Koreas have continued, and mutual measures such as the scattering of trash balloons and the resumption of loudspeaker broadcasts toward North Korea have been repeated. Internally, after the major flood near the Amnok River in July 2024, disaster recovery and regional construction projects emerged as major agenda items, and the public appearance of his daughter Kim Ju Ae has drawn attention in connection with the succession structure. Various speculations about his health have been raised steadily, but there is no confirmed official information. The international community maintains sanctions on North Korea for reasons including the nuclear program and human rights situation, and North Korea protests against this, calling it a 'hostile policy.'
Related Topics
- [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea]]
- [[Kim Jong Il]]
- [[North Korean nuclear issue]]
- [[Inter-Korean relations]]
- [[Workers' Party of Korea]]
- [[Korean Peninsula peace regime]]