Young Kim is military genius
State tv shows leader’s excellent leadership skills
SEOUL: North Korea praised its young new leader as “the genius among the geniuses” in military strategy in a film aired on his birthday, the first since he took command after his father’s death.
In a documentary about Kim Jong-un’s virtues, state television yesterday showed the leader driving a tank and giving orders to troops in artillery, navy and air force units, lauding his “excellent military leadership”.
“The respected comrade Jong-un is perfectly versed in all military strategies and displays excellent military leadership,” said the film.
Communist North Korea has proclaimed Jong-un, who is believed to be in his late 20s, as “great successor” to his father Kim Jong-il, who died of a heart attack on Dec 17.
The heir has been appointed the supreme commander of the North’s 1.2 million-strong military, which under the regime’s “Songun” ideology enjoys priority treatment in all fields of policy.
Jong-un was a relative unknown until recently and has no military experience.
However, the documentary said he wrote his first thesis on military strategy at the age of 16, after sleeping only three to four hours a night and often skipping meals to study.
“Our great general Jong-il called him (Jongun) the multi-talented, genius of the geniuses in military knowledge,” it said.
The documentary described him as “the spitting image” of his father and grandfather in personality and leadership.
Since Jong-il’s death, the reclusive North’s state media have launched campaigns to idolise Jong-un in a similar way to his late father and his grandfather, founding president
The respected comrade Kim Jong-un is perfectly versed in all military strategies and displays excellent military leadership. — STATE TELEVISION DOCUMENTARY
Kim Il-sung.
The birthdays of Jong-il on Feb 16 and of Il-sung on April 15 are two of the communist country’s most important holidays, often marked by fireworks, extra food rations and other events.
It was not known whether the North has designated Jan 8 as a public holiday and the TV documentary did not directly address the new leader’s birthday.
The film did not spell out when the footage was taken.
Some of it showed father and son together but state media have also reported that Jongun visited a tank division on Jan 1.
Jong-un’s birthday was not marked as a holiday in North Korean calendars for 2012, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said.
Those would have been printed before he took over the leadership.
Jong-un, a graduate of Kim Il-sung Military University, is believed to have turned 28 or 29 yesterday, though his exact birth date has not been confirmed by the government.
The North’s media say the young leader will continue the father’s Songun policy.
The policy has been blamed for the deaths of thousands of people to starvation as the isolated, impoverished regime diverts resources to its armed forces, which are the world’s fourth largest. — AFP