Eccentric and ruthless but North Korean leader Kim is no madman
DONALD Trump has made a surprise announcement that he plans to meet North Korean leader for “milestone” nuclear talks – putting the two leaders who have repeatedly insulted, threatened and dismissed each other in the same room. Here we look at Kim Jong-un’s rise to power.
KIM Jong-un was not even 30 when he assumed power in 2011.
Even inside North Korea he was little known and cut an almost comical figure on the international stage with his odd haircut and often outlandish public boasts.
Since then, he has turned his rogue nation into a nuclear powerhouse, ordered the killing of rivals and picked a fight with President Trump. Now he is fashioning himself as a peacemaker with his invitation to meet Mr Trump to discuss denuclearisation. It will be the first meeting between a US president and North Korean leader and is expected to happen within months.
“He’s surprising everybody,” said Bruce Bennett, an analyst at Rand Corporation.
The third generation of a family dynasty, Mr Kim is often dismissed as an eccentric, heading a country so cut off from the rest of the world it is called the Hermit Kingdom. Mr Trump has called him a “madman.”
But analysts have warned that the characterisation of Mr Kim as crazy or irrational is plain wrong. “Everybody keeps misunderstanding Kim Jong-un,” said Michael Madden, an analyst at the Us-korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Mr Kim’s aim is to build the country into a nuclear power and to rule over one country on the Korean peninsula. “There’s a clarity of purpose in what Kim Jong-un has done,” Yong Suk-lee, deputy assistant director of the CIA’S Korea Mission Centre, said.
To achieve his objectives Mr Kim would want a security guarantee or peace agreement from the United States, the withdrawal of US forces from South Korea and the lifting of economic sanctions.
“He cannot get there in a single leap,” said Sheila Miyoshi Jager, a professor at Oberlin College, Ohio. “A vital goal is to secure North Korea, to obtain an iron-clad guarantee for the security of his regime.”
When Mr Trump, who has boasted of his negotiating skills, sits down the Kim he will meet will be a savvy politician who has consolidated power inside his own country while dramatically expanding his nuclear arsenal.
The invitation to meet Mr Trump capped a diplomatic offensive that began this year with Mr Kim’s New Year’s speech that included boasts about the country’s nuclear prowess with a desire to improve relations with South Korea.
The following month, Mr Kim sent a delegation to the Winter Olympics in South Korea that included his sister, Kim Yo-jong. The smiling images of her watching the Olympics were seen throughout the world. “The timing of his moves since his New Year’s speech speaks volumes about his cunning and savviness,” Ms Jager said.
She said Mr Kim’s offer to meet Mr Trump is also timed to take advantage of the president’s political challenges at home and his need for a diversion. “Trump needs a diplomatic victory now more than ever,” Ms Jager said.
Mr Kim, who spent years at a Swiss school, is more worldly than his father, Kim Jong-il, or his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, both of whom rarely left North Korea.
He has opened the country to the outside world more than his father, allowing more foreigners into the country and loosening some restrictions on the economy. The capital Pyongyang and a small number of elites have benefited from the reforms, though most of the country remains poor.
Ms Jager said Mr Kim is looking for a balance between opening the country enough to build prosperity without losing control. “Where that line will be drawn is uncertain,” she said.
Mr Kim is a traditionalist in other ways. He hasn’t shied from using the violence and terror that have been a key part of the family’s rule for three generations.
He was a relative unknown when he came to power and needed to quickly assert control over potential rivals in a government soaked in violence.
He is suspected by South Korea’s government of ordering the killing of his exiled half brother, Kim Jong-nam, who was poisoned with a nerve agent in Malaysia last year.
There’s a clarity of purpose in what Kim Jong-un has done