It’s not always ‘like father like son’ for leadership in N. Korea

Posted on : 2013-12-17 15:32 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Kim Jong-un came into power looking somewhat open, but has recently shown himself to be merciless
 North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visits a military fishery. (KNCA/Yonhap News)
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visits a military fishery. (KNCA/Yonhap News)

By Choi Hyun-june, staff reporter

In a variety of ways, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un resembles his grandfather Kim Il-sung more than his father Kim Jong-il. When he goes on guidance tours wearing a coat with his hair slicked back, hands clasped behind his back and an expression of complete confidence on his face, he is the spitting image of Kim Il-sung.

After Kim speedily disposed his uncle Jang Song-thaek, former head of the administrative division of the Korean Workers’ Party, he was blamed with resorting to a politics of terror. This merciless behavior is another point of similarity with his grandfather, whereas Kim Jong-il held back from purging high-ranking officials for three years after his father’s death.

But during the first phase of his rule, Kim tried to project the image of a friendly, liberal leader influenced by the West. He gave the impression of being a new kind of leader, walking hand in hand with soldiers on a visit to a military base in Jan. 2012 and attending events accompanied by his stylish wife Ri Sol-ju.

During his de facto inauguration ceremony in Apr. 2012, Kim Jong-un made a public speech, and in January, he even presented the New Year’s address in person. This open attitude was much harder to find in his father, Kim Jong-il, who was known to the West as the “reclusive dictator.”

Kim Jong-un has also relied on official Party organizations to make policy decisions. This is different from Kim Jong-il, whose command style involved him signing documents drafted by the Party secretary or government department heads.

The recent ouster of Jang Song-thaek and the dismissal of Ri Yong-ho, Chief of the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army, both took place at a meeting of the Political Bureau. Of course, the extent to which the reported events correspond to what actually happened is a different question.

Kim Jong-un’s insistence on the two-track policy of the economy and nuclear weapons also sets him apart from his father, who placed full emphasis on the military, as was reflected in the slogan “military-first politics.”

This difference appears to come from how the two men grew up and how they came to power in North Korea. Kim Jong-il was born in the Soviet Union in 1942 but grew up and went to school in North Korea. He began his political career at the age of 22 and became the leader of North Korea at 52. For about 30 years, Kim Jong-il faithfully learned from his father what he would need to know to succeed him. When Kim Jong-il assumed the leadership, the North was wracked by floods, drought, and other natural disasters, precipitating a famine that became known as North Korea’s “arduous march.”

In contrast, Kim Jong-un studied abroad for about 10 years near Bern, Switzerland, and received a Western-style education. Only about three years after being designated as his father’s successor (in Aug. 2008), he assumed the leadership upon his father’s abrupt death at the end of 2011. While Kim Jong-un had much less time to be trained as heir than his father did, he reportedly had a very strong will to power.

After becoming the leader of North Korea, Kim moved quickly to secure his grip on power. Within only four months of the death of Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un had risen to the highest positions in the land, including supreme commander, first secretary of the Party, and first vice chairman of the National Defense Commission. He managed all this in a much shorter period of time than his father Kim Jong-il. It took the elder Kim four years to secure the major positions at the time.

Officials at the Unification Ministry believe that 97 of 218 (44%) major figures in the Party, government, and military have been replaced since Kim Jong-un took power. Interestingly, in only two years he switched out the key powerbrokers in the Party (former administrative department chief Jang Song-thaek), the military (former chief of the general staff Ri Yong-ho), and the government (former premier Choi Yong-rim). This also indicates that Kim Jong-un was been in a hurry to lay the foundation for his own authority.

“While Kim Jong-un presented himself as open and tolerant in the early phase of his rule, at the present he is showing himself to be merciless in the political arena,” said Yang Moo-jin, professor at the University of North Korean Studies. “This is similar to how Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il looked when they first came to power. We will see more of this until Kim Jong-un’s grip on power becomes firmer.”

 

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