Kim Jong Un

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With 321,739 views on Tuesday, 20 October 2026 our article of the day is Kim Jong Un.

Kim Jong Un (born 8 January c. 1982–1984) is a North Korean politician and dictator who has been serving as the supreme leader of North Korea since 2011, following the death of his father, Kim Jong Il. He is the third ruler from the Kim family to lead the country, which was founded by his grandfather Kim Il Sung. Kim holds the positions of general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and president of the State Affairs Commission, as well as the highest offices in the Korean People's Army.

The second of three children of Kim Jong Il and his mistress Ko Yong Hui, Kim studied at the International School of Berne in Switzerland before attending Kim Il Sung University between 2002 and 2007. From 2009, Kim was viewed as the successor to the North Korean leadership. Following his father's death in 2011, state television announced Kim as the "great successor to the revolutionary cause". He assumed various leadership posts, and also became member of the Presidium of the WPK Politburo, the highest decision-making body in the country. In July 2012, Kim was promoted to the highest rank of marshal in the Korean People's Army, consolidating his positions as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces and Chairman of the Central Military Commission.

Like his father and grandfather before him, Kim Jong Un rules North Korea as a repressive and totalitarian dictatorship, and his leadership has maintained the Kim family cult of personality. State media often refer to him as "Respected Comrade", "Marshal", and "Head of State". Kim's government has been accused of human rights violations. He reportedly ordered the purge and execution of several North Korean officials including his uncle, Jang Song-thaek, in 2013, and the assassination of his half-brother, Kim Jong-nam, in Malaysia in 2017. Kim Jong Un's ideology departed from his father's military-first Songun policy, professing a "people-first policy" and renewed commitment to communism. Kim has promoted the Byungjin policy of parallel development of the country's nuclear weapons program alongside the country's economy, named after the similar policy of Kim Il Sung. He has revived the structures of the WPK, expanding the party's power at the expense of the military leadership.

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