Page 67 - All About History 55 - 2017 UK

The House of Kim

Pyongyang residents
take part in a rally
commemorating the
Korean War

Crowds in Pyongyang
watch a TV screen
showing their new
Supreme Leader Kim Kim Jong-un oversees
a drill of the Korean
Jong-un at a Central People’s Army
Committee Meeting
heir. Jong-chul disappeared from the headlines ever closer to a deliverable missile, but he has unfinished business that nagged at him, a source
in Pyongyang, his picture stopped appearing and also managed to slightly rejuvenate the country’s of potential opposition, a problem from long
suddenly, beside his now visibly ailing father, was economy, too. Alongside all this, he has proved ago that could become an issue tomorrow — his
a young man, barely in his 20s — Kim Jong-un. to any who have doubted them his hard man disgraced and exiled half-brother, Kim Jong-nam.
His years of debauchery finally caught up with credentials. Arguably, of the three Supreme In February 2017, Jong-nam visited Kuala Lumpur
him, and Kim Jong-il died in December 2011. Leaders of the DPRK, it is Kim Jong-un who has and spent several days there, though it is unclear
Briefly, out of public view, the three brothers paid been the most ruthless. who he met. He then went to the city’s airport to
their respects to their father at the enormous Political purging is now an established tactic of catch a flight back to Macao.
mausoleum where he was enbalmed and placed regime survival for the Kim clan, but Jong-un has In the departures terminal, two women threw
alongside the eternal president, Kim Il-sung, taken it to new levels of barbarity. Within three a poisoned towel over his face and killed him.
at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in central years of his rule, he initiated the purging of at They were caught but knew nothing. A number
Pyongyang. Jong-nam came back from exile least 70 senior officials. And if anyone questioned of North Korean men wanted by Malaysian
in Macao under Beijing’s protection, Jong-chul that he was truly a supreme leader, he shocked police disappeared; the DPRK’s embassy denied
from internal exile (having recently been seen even ordinary North Koreans (usually given only everything and sought to recover Jong-nam’s
in Singapore at an Eric Clapton concert), and the most opaque news of what is happening at body before an autopsy could be performed. It is
they stood alongside the new Supreme Leader, the centre) by publicly, on prime time television very likely that, despite ongoing trials in Kuala
28-year-old Kim Jong-un. They were together in the DPRK, having his own uncle and one-time Lumpur, nothing will ever be conclusively proved.
for a matter of moments and then Jong-chul close mentor, arrested. But if there was anyone who could lead a coup
disappeared back into his Pyongyang home and Jang Song-thaek, the number two leader of against Jong-un, it was Jong-nam. That option is
Jong-nam flew back to Macao. North Korea, was arguably the leading male now gone and Kim Jong-un rules truly supreme.
The world underestimated Jong-un. He was role model in Jong-un’s early life, given his own But what happens next is less clear than ever.
ridiculed overseas for being too young, too father’s distance. But in the end this didn’t save Jong-un is 33, married to Ri Sol-ju, the daughter
inexperienced and a playboy like his father, him — Jang was accused of treachery and plotting of close Kim dynasty associates, and they are
who seemed to prefer hob-knobbing with minor a coup. He endured a show trial and was then believed — though it has never been formally
basketball celebrities and good living to turning summarily executed. confirmed — to have had a daughter in 2012 or
around an ailing economy and isolated country. Jang’s execution appeared to be the final 2013. Add to the mix the current nuclear sabre-
But Jong-un surprised everyone. Not only has he consolidation of Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un’s rattling and the line of Kim succession – and the
accelerated the nuclear programme and edged total power. But perhaps there was one piece of future of the DPRK – is far from certain.

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