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New 'brilliant comrade'
Al-Ahram Weekly Published in Al-Ahram Weekly on 30 - 09 - 2010

"DEAR Leader" Kim Jong-Il's youngest son Kim Jong-Un is attracting international attention with his surprise appointment as general along with 38 others in North Korea. Speculation regarding this little-known figure is now rife, as his father is in poor health. International media sources predict Kim Jong-Un will succeed his father as Kim Jong-Il did before him.
Kim Jong-Il was well-groomed long before he became head of state. Throughout the 1960s and 70s he was active in North Korean politics. In 1973 at the age of 31 he was appointed Communist Party secretary. In 1982 rumours spread about him being Kim Il Sung's successor. In 1991 he became supreme commander of the Armed Forces, and finally, chairman of the National Defense Commission before being officially declared heir and put in charge of internal affairs. He became supreme ruler in 1994.
Kim Jong-Un's position is quite different as very little is known about him and there have been only rumours of his appearance in public. The 27-year-old Swiss-educated third child of Kim Jong-Il has had no political activity to date and his only public photograph is as a schoolboy. He has two older brothers Jong-Chul and the eldest, Jong-Nam. The latter fell from favour after his arrest in the Tokyo airport in 2001 for using a fake passport, and it is only Jong-Un who is called "brilliant comrade".

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