It is one of the most powerful and dangerous jobs in the world and, for decades, foreign politicians, academics and spies have speculated over who will one day succeed to it. It brings absolute power over 24 million people, the command of a fanatical, nuclear-equipped army of a million men, and a brutal state security apparatus.
Today the man who is likely to inherit it emerged from the shadows – a little-known 25-year-old with a private education in Switzerland and fondness for sushi, German cars and baseball.
Reports from North and South Korea appear to confirm what until now has been only rumour – that Kim Jong Un, the third and youngest son of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, is being lined up to inherit his father’s title. It would be the second hereditary succession in the last remaining totalitarian communist dictatorship – and set the scene for a period of extreme instability in one of the world’s most unpredictable countries.
Today one of his closest and most hardline generals promised the army’s loyalty to the “bloodline” of the senior Mr Kim, a virtual guarantee that one of his children will succeed to the leadership. Meanwhile, the South Korean Yonhap news agency quoted sources in China saying that Jong Un, the youngest of his three sons, will stand in a carefully rigged “election” to the country’s tame parliament – the precursor to his public emergence as his father’s successor. ...more ...
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**edited by WE for photo**
