BIOGRAPHY OF KIM JONG UN ,KIM JONG UN

                                                 

          BIOGRAPHY OF KIM JONG UN ,

 North Korea is a country shrouded in mystery. They do not allow their citizens to leave,and they cannot receive information from the outside world. The very few people who are allowed insideare under strict supervision. From the perspective of the United States,all we see of Kim Jong-un in the media is a Communist leader who is threatening nuclearwar and violating human rights. He has had his hand in a number of assassinationsof his enemies, as well. For many people, that’s all they need toknow to form an opinion, and they imagine that his an evil dictator on par with AdolfHitler. But the truth about this man is far more complicated.

 Family Background, and Early Life

Before we get into the details of Kim Jong-un, it’s important to understand a little bitof history about North Korea. During World War II, Japan was occupying Korea,and the country fell into a state of extreme poverty. They became independent again in 1945, butthe country was now at rock bottom. It was extremely difficult to raise theireconomy out of the depression, especially since they were years behind the western worldin manufacturing and transportation. This desperate time made some citizens opento the ideas of Communism, where the government is responsible for providing food, shelter,and employment to its citizens. The USSR was eager to help, so Russia providedweapons to North Korea, and it split off from the South in 1948. Their leader was a man named Kim Il-Sung. In the beginning, things were actually goingvery well. Kim Il-Sung kept his promises. He improved agriculture, and no one was hungryanymore. He brought industrialism to the country, whichgave the citizens jobs. They built up the capital city of Pyongyang,and the country was progressing very quickly. For years, North Korea was far ahead of SouthKorea’s progress. People loved Kim Il-Sung so much, they calledhim “The Supreme Leader”, and began making up legends that he was a God with supernaturalabilities.

In 1950, the Korean War began, and the USSRand China teamed up with North Korea in their attempt to take over the South. The United States fought on the side of democracy,and they helped South Korea win back their territory. American soldiers are still stationed at theborder to this day, even though the war was nearly 70 years ago. In the North Korean version of history, Americaattacked first, and they were just defending themselves. This triggered years of anti-American propaganda,and a ban on all American made products. The feeling was mutual. The United Nations created trade embargoesagainst North Korea, and refused to work together with Communist nations. After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, NorthKorea ran out of money, and it triggered a widespread famine where citizens were starvingagain, and people struggled to survive. This was no longer the utopia that Kim Il-Sunghad envisioned, and his son, Kim Jong-il, was doing very little to fix anything duringhis reign. If anything, he exploited his power to thefullest extent, and did things that were truly evil, which only made North Korea’s reputationworse. Kim Jong-il had several children with multiplemistresses. At least three sons and two daughters areknown to the public. Kim Jong-un was his third son, born in 1983.

Switzerland is one of the few neutral countrieswho was willing to work together with North Korean diplomats, so Kim Jong-il sent hischildren to boarding school there. Un was given the alias of “Pak Un”. He got to experience a normal childhood livingin an apartment with a family who worked at the Swiss embassy. He was given lessons on how to speak German,but he had to enter a class of students who were two years younger than him in order tocatch up to the reading level. At first, he struggled, but he was eventuallyable to make good friends with the other kids. His teachers say that he enjoyed playing gameboy,and that his favorite sport was basketball. He was an average student who enjoyed gymclass far more than academic subjects. He wore different Nike tracksuits every singleday to school. At home, he loved watching the NBA and Americanaction movies. His mother was one of Kim Jong-il’s mistresses-an opera singer named Ko Young-hee. She would fly back and forth from North Koreaon a private jet to visit him, sometimes staying for several weeks at a time. He was able to visit several countries inEurope, and Japan, and spent most of his young life learning about the world outside NorthKorea.

When he was 17 years old, he was taking HighSchool classes, and preparing for graduation. One day, “Pak Un” didn’t come to class. Everyone assumed he was out sick, but daysturned into weeks, and he never came back. He was ordered to leave so suddenly, thathe never got to say goodbye to his friends. He began taking college classes in North Korea. He was never allowed to tell anyone aboutthe secrets of the outside world, since the entire nation was still living like it wasfrozen in a time capsule of the 1960’s. His older brother, Kim Jong-nam, was originallysupposed to become the new leader of North Korea. The second son, Chul, is described as beingvery effeminate, and not “appropriate” for a fierce leader. Un was third in line for succession, so growingup, he would have never expected to take on that responsibility. However, the eldest brother Nam got himselfinto a lot of trouble. In 2001, Nam was caught using fake passportswhile trying to take his family to Tokyo Disneyland, and it was all over the news. His carelessness made members of the NorthKorean elite lose trust in his abilities. For the next two years, Nam would openly criticizethe way his father was running the country. In 2003, he was exiled from North Korea, and20-year old Un was told that his older brother was gone. He would need to become the next “SupremeLeader”.

When Kim Jong-Il had his first stroke, Unwas 25 years old. His advisors knew it was time to begin teachinghim how to become the new leader. However, his father died in 2011. Un only had about a year of political trainingat this point, but it was too late. At 26 years old, he became the dictator ofNorth Korea. Once he was revealed to the nation as theirnew Supreme Leader, people were skeptical about his young age, but they also loved himright away. He was very friendly and mild-mannered, andhe reminded a lot of people of his beloved grandfather, Kim Il-Sung. The superstitious Korean people began a rumorthat Un was actually a reincarnation of his grandfather who came back from the dead tobring North Korea back to its former glory The New RegimeThere are few people living outside of North Korea who know Kim Jong-Un well enough tobe able to testify for his character. Kenji Fujimoto is a chef from Japan who washired by Kim Jong-Il to cook his meals, and they became good friends after Un returnedhome from studying abroad. Fujimoto was one of the very few people whohe could talk to openly about the outside world. He marveled at the fact that foreign grocerystores were always filled with food, but in North Korea, they are always empty. Un knew there was something deeply wrong withhis country, and he wanted to make it better. He confided in Fujimoto that when he becamethe new leader, he planned to model North Korea’s economy after China, whose wealthboomed from their production and world-wide distribution. In 2012, when he gave his first speech asthe new leader, Kim Jong-Un declared that this would be a “new” North Korea, andall of the struggles were behind them.

When he came into power, children were stilldying of malnutrition. His first mission was to make sure his peoplehad enough to eat. He spoke about his immense respect for theloyalty of his people, and how they deserve so much better. He said, “Our people should never have totighten their belts again.” From day one, Kim Jong-Un has made an effortto be the polar opposite of his father. Kim Jong-il never made a single public speechduring the course of his reign. He kept his citizens out of the loop, andcompletely avoided interacting with them. His father and his friends in the elite classenjoyed a life of luxury. Any help from charities from the outside worldwent to feeding the rich, while babies continued to die of starvation every day. Kim Jong-Un had to undo decades of damagedone by his father. It would take time, but he kept his word. Un set out new economic and agricultural reformsthat brought more food to the people. Within a year or two, people were healthyagain.

Un was a young, possibly naive man with bighopes and dreams. He truly did want to use his position of powerfix his country. But he would soon find out is that even inthe position of Supreme Leader, some problems are far too complicated for one person tofix. The Attempted CoupBefore Kim Jong-Un came into power, generals were national heroes, and they were all apartof an elite class in North Korea. A lot of the power and in the government wasgoing to these military leaders. Many people don’t realize that North Koreanscall their country “The DPRK”, which stands for “The Democratic People’s Republicof Korea”, but the people’s republic was clearly lacking the funding and power thatit needed. One of Kim Jong-Un’s first executive decisionswas to remove all of the power from the military, and give some back to the people and theirrepresentatives. His uncle, Jang Song-thaek, was a decoratedgeneral, so this executive order stripped away much of his political power. Before Kim Jong-il died, there was some speculationthat Jang Song-thaek would become the new leader of the country, since Un was stillso young. For the first year of Un’s reign, Jang Song-thaekoffered his nephew some guidance in how to run the government, but it was clear thathe was just trying to be a puppet-master.

This only lasted for about a year. In 2013, Kim Jong-Un ordered the executionof his uncle. He was shot by a firing squad. In the past, whenever there was a sudden deathof a member of the elite, everyone knew that it was an execution, but the government wouldexplain it away by saying it was a car accident or a heart attack. Kim Jong-Un shocked the public by admittingthat he had his uncle killed because he was attempting to overthrow him and take the positionof Supreme Leader for himself. In North Korea, if someone commits a seriouscrime, there are really only three options- send them to a prison camp, kill, or exile. Considering how much power Jang Song-thaekhad in the North Korean military, killing him was really the only option. Kim Jong-Un also killed many of the men whowere helping his uncle plan the coup. For the other military leaders running thegovernment, Kim Jong-un forced them into retirement, and replaced them with people that he knewhe could trust. It was later revealed in the world-wide pressthat Jang Song-thaek was a pedoephile, and he had an arrangement with Kim Jong-il whenhe was still alive. They targeted extremely young girls who wouldaudition to be apart of some artistic role, only to become Song-thaek’s play things. He had these young girls bathe his naked bodydaily. Basically, while we’re not trying to promotemurder, killing Jang Song-thaek with a firing squad was letting him get off easy comparedto what inmates would have done to him in the US prison system, for example. However, the western media latched onto thisstory, saying he went on a “killing spree”.

 This was also very shocking for North Koreancitizens to hear, because they are a culture that deeply respects their elders. Bringing The DPRK To the 21st CenturyWhile North Korea is still very sheltered from the outside world, Kim Jong-Un has actuallymade a lot of effort to slowly incorporate modern life into the DPRK. He has invited in groups from around the worldto entertain and teach people in things they have never seen before, like a group calledSurf North Korea. However, these are special privileges reservedfor the elite class. .He allowed North Koreans to gain access to smartphones, computers, and HD televisions. Students are also learning computer programmingin university. However, they cannot gain access to The WorldWide Web, and there is only one TV channel used to spread propaganda. Their phones are only good for making localcalls, and all of this still only affordable for people in the upper class. Kim Jong-Un began sending his country’scurrent and future leaders to schools in Singapore, Vietnam, Canada, and Hong Kong to receivea proper education in economics and politics. He hopes that they will return with a betterunderstanding on how to help change the North Korean government, and help transition theireconomy into a free market. Many people get access to DVD’s and flashdrives smuggled in from China with South Korean TV shows and movies.

It is now common for citizens who own TV’sand computers to see what the outside world is truly like, even though they are not allowedto leave. Un made an unlikely friendship with the professionalbasketball player Dennis Rodman. In a 2018 interview with CNN, Rodman explainedthat he wanted to give Kim Jong-un a present for his birthday by flying over an Americanbasketball team to North Korea. No one in their country had ever seen an NBAgame before. Despite the difficulty getting into the country,Rodman was able to pull it off. Kim Jong-un told him, “This is the firsttime someone has ever kept their word to me.” He went on to explain that people usuallyspout false promises about trying to make peace with his country, and that makes itnearly impossible to trust any outsiders. For the people who have defected into SouthKorea, they say that the transition came as a shock.

There were so many more lights, cars, andpeople than they were used to. Actress Yeon-Mi Park says that she is alwaysstudying very hard to catch up to her peers by learning how to read and write the Koreanlanguage and catch up to everything there is to know about the outside world. We will never be able to read Kim Jong-un’smind to see his long-term goals. If the truth of the outside world was broughtto these people who have been living an isolated and oppressed life in for so many years, therewould be a revolt, and Kim Jong-un would lose his power. If he wants to open North Korea up to therest of the world, it’s not something that can be done overnight. Remember that these people are essentiallystuck in a time capsule. At this point, exposing them to the outsideworld all at once would be incredibly overwhelming, and it may lead to bloodshed. We don’t know if he is more concerned withkeeping people oppressed to maintain his power, or if he knows that this process of globalizationin North Korea will take time. Personal LifeWhen he was still alive, Un’s father helped himself to a harem of actresses and singers,and he arranged for his three sons to have the ability to sleep with any woman they wanted. But according to Kenji Fujimoto, the teenagedUn simply wasn’t interested in sleeping around. He was very protective of his younger sister,and showed a lot of respect towards women in general. He preferred to read books, watch movies,and play basketball over partying and going on dates. Fujimoto was so shocked by the boy’s disinterestin the harem that he often wondered if he was actually gay.

One day, however, Un made a comment that confirmedto Fujimoto that he did, in fact, like girls just as much as any other teenage boy. He just wanted to fall in love. Kim Jung-Un is married to a woman named RiSol Ju. She was a singer in her younger years, butafter marrying Kim Jung-Un, she began pursuing a college degree in science, and completedher PhD. The details about their relationship werekept secret, and their marriage was only announced in 2012, after he became the new leader ofNorth Korea. However, some say that they had already beenmarried for years before then. As First Lady, Ri Sol-Ju enjoys organizingevents for her husband, and she is often seen accompanying him in public. While this seems totally normal to the outsideworld, Kim Jung-un is actually the first North Korean leader who allowed his wife to be seenin public.

 He also brings along his sister, aunt, andone of his father’s former consorts with him to events, because they are part of hisinner circle of advisors. While we may never know the intimated detailsof his marriage, their body language shows that they are very loving with one another. According to Dennis Rodman, he met one oftheir daughters, a little girl named Ju-ae. Many have speculated that he has multiplechildren, but they are never shown in the public eye to protect their anonymity. They are receiving a private education abroad,just like he did. Instead of relying on a male heir to takeover his throne, Kim Jong-Un has been paying for the training of his younger sister, KimYo-jong, so she can become the new Supreme Leader of the country, if anything shouldhappen to him. She is usually present during very importantmeetings with national leaders. Nuclear Power And OppressionWhile he is better than his father in just about every way, Kim Jong-Un is far from beingthe perfect leader. North Korean citizens are still not allowedto come and go from the country as they please. As a Communist nation, people are not allowedto choose their own career. They do not have freedom of speech or religion,and the press is a never-ending propaganda machine. One of the main criticisms he receives isfor the harsh treatments of prisoners in the Gulags and concentration camps. Prisoners are being used for uranium mining,and their bodies have been riddled with radiation. Considering that he wants to keep up withhis nuclear arsenal, uranium mining has become a necessary evil. Then, of course, there is the fact that Kim-Jong-Unhas made multiple threats of nuclear war against the United States.

 This is an incredibly frightening thing tothink about, and it has had Americans on edge. However, when you interview South Koreans,not many people are worried, despite the fact that they live right next door. They believe that Kim Jong-Un’s nuclearthreat is the only thing the country has for leverage to prevent a more powerful nationfrom invading them. Remember that there are thousands of Americantroops at their border, and with all of the other major powers in the world owning nuclearweapons, this is just a way for them to become on-level with “mutually assured destruction”,meaning that no President in their right mind would attack a country who has nuclear weaponsat their disposal, because it would mean both countries would be obliterated. Even though military training is a requirementfor every citizen of North Korea, Kim Jong-Un never received any, himself. But the North Korean propaganda machine hasbuilt up this myth that he was sent away to receive some of the best military trainingin the world, so he runs military drills to keep up this illusion. He was given the equivalent ranking of a 3-stargeneral.

None of the young soldiers have ever beento war, and the military leaders from the Korean War are all but gone. North Korea has outdated weapons that weregiven to them by the Soviet Union decades ago, and while they are dangerous, there isno way they would ever win a war if they took on South Korea. A man named Robert Carlin is a CIA negotiatorwith North Korea. He summed up this grand show up nuclear powerperfectly. “One thing every North Korean leader hasunderstood, and (Kim Jong-un) does too, is that if they lower their guard, they willbe treated by the major powers as the used furniture of history. The will simply be discarded, walked over,ignored. Otherwise, why pay any attention to them? So, they have to make sure people care aboutthem.” In 2018, Kim Jong-Un met with the Presidentof South Korea, Moon Jae-In, and the President of the United States, Donald Trump, in orderto bring their countries to a place of peace, where progress can soon be made. We can only hope that there will be a solutionto this incredibly complicated situation without ever going to war.