North Korea gets a clearer picture of Illustrious General

The “Illustrious General” has had a busy year. Since Kim Jong Un’s international debut a year ago this week as North Korea’s next leader, he is said to have proven himself a savvy military strategist.

The newly-minted four-star general, believed to be in his late 20s, is widely credited in the North with orchestrating an artillery attack on a South Korean front-line island late last year. It supposedly showed his battle-readiness, while also leaving four people dead and feeding fears that the foes were on the brink of another war.

Jong Un regularly appears beside his father, leader Kim Jong Il, at major events and on inspection trips to farms and factories, visits now commemorated with plaques bearing his name. Officials even say Jong Un has been entrusted with full leadership of the country while his father has made extended trips to China and Russia over the past year.

At least that’s the official portrait emerging. The inner workings of North Korea’s political leadership have never been easy for the outside world to fathom or confirm. Foreigners are allowed in on a limited and restricted basis.

Still, North Korea has made substantial progress building up Jong Un’s cult of personality over the past year, and a biography and other top government and political posts can be expected over the coming months, says Yoo Ho-yeol, a professor at Korea University in South Korea.

“He is now performing the role of successor,” he said on Monday. “He has virtually cemented his status as the next leader.”

A year ago, Jong Un was unveiled to the world at a grand military parade marking the 65th anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party, saluting troops by his father’s side.

His emergence settled the question of which of Jong Il’s three known sons would succeed him as the third generation leader in a family dynasty that has ruled since North Korea’s inception in 1948.

The succession became a pressing issue in 2008 when Jong Il dropped out of public sight for a couple of months after a what is believed to have been a stroke.

Still, Jong Un remains an enigma, even as he appears with mounting frequency on North Korea’s state-run TV channel and in dispatches from the Korean Central News Agency.

North Koreans are told he graduated from Kim Il Sung Military University, speaks several languages, including English, and is a genius at computing and technology. However, his date of birth, his marital status and even the name of his mother – said to be Jong Il’s late second wife, Ko Yong Hui – have never been made public.

North Koreans are expecting to learn more about him next year when the nation celebrates the 100th anniversary on 15 April the birth of the late family patriarch, Kim Il Sung.

Next year promises to be momentous for a government that loves round figures. Il Sung would have turned 100, Jong Il will be 70, and some speculate that Jong Un may celebrate his 30th birthday in what would be a perfect alignment of succession mathematics.

The emphasis on the Kim family’s legitimacy to lead has never been stronger. The most popular of the songs written to honour Jong Un is called Footsteps, an obvious reference to his role in carrying out his family’s legacy.

Il Sung remains a revered figure 17 years after his death, and Jong Un appears to be modelling himself after his grandfather, down to his hairdo. Portraits of the young Il Sung hanging on the walls of the Pyongyang office where the president worked from 1945-49 how the same look: a thick head of hair on top and shaved at the sides above the ear.

North Koreans have been gearing up for 2012 for three years, with a push to build a “strong and prosperous country”. Factories have been charged with churning out an array of consumer goods geared to improving daily life. All across Pyongyang, buildings are being torn down and renovated and new ones built, a campaign said to be led in part by Jong Un.

At a hydroelectric power plant in the city of Wonsan on the east coast, manager Pyon Ung Kyu said he put up a third plaque on the wall in honour of the future leader. One gives thanks to Kim Il Sung, another to Kim Jong Il, and the newest – also in honorific red lettering – to the “Illustrious General”.

Across the countryside, similar plaques are visible, posted at schools, farms and shops.