Background and career
Kim Jong Un (born 8 January c. 1982–1984) is a North Korean politician and dictator who has been serving as the supreme leader of North Korea since 2011, following the death of his father, Kim Jong Il. He is the third ruler from the Kim family to lead the country, which was founded by his grandfather Kim Il Sung. Kim holds the positions of general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and president of the State Affairs Commission, as well as the highest offices in the Korean People's Army. The second of three children of Kim Jong Il and his mistress Ko Yong Hui, Kim studied at the International School of Berne in Switzerland before attending Kim Il Sung University between 2002 and 2007. From 2009, Kim was viewed as the successor to the North Korean leadership. Following his father's death in 2011, state television announced Kim as the "great successor to the revolutionary cause". He assumed various leadership posts, and also became member of the Presidium of the WPK Politburo, the highest decision-making body in the country. In July 2012, Kim was promoted to the highest rank of marshal in the Korean People's Army, consolidating his positions as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces and Chairman of the Central Military Commission. Like his father and grandfather before him, Kim Jong Un rules North Korea as a repressive and totalitarian dictatorship, and his leadership has maintained the Kim family cult of personality. State media often refer to him as "Respected Comrade", "Marshal", and "Head of State". Kim's government has been accused of human rights violations. He reportedly ordered the purge and execution of several North Korean officials including his uncle, Jang Song-thaek, in 2013, and the assassination of his half-brother, Kim Jong-nam, in Malaysia in 2017. Kim Jong Un's ideology departed from his father's military-first Songun policy, professing a "people-first policy" and renewed commitment to communism. Kim has promoted the Byungjin policy of parallel development of the country's nuclear weapons program alongside the country's economy, named after the similar policy of Kim Il Sung. He has revived the structures of the WPK, expanding the party's power at the expense of the military leadership. Kim oversaw the world's four most recent nuclear weapons tests and extensive missile tests, including North Korea's first intercontinental ballistic missile. These heightened tensions with South Korea, the United States, and China, culminating in the 2017–2018 North Korea crisis. In 2018 and 2019, Kim took part in summits with Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean president Moon Jae-in and U.S. president Donald Trump, the first meetings between a North Korean and a U.S. head of state. Despite the brief thaw in relations, the negotiations ultimately broke down without progress on reunification of Korea or nuclear disarmament. He claimed success in combating the COVID-19 pandemic, with the country not reporting confirmed cases until May 2022, although some independent observers questioned this claim. In December 2023, Kim declared that North Korea formally abandoned efforts to reunify Korea and proposed the two hostile states theory, symbolically demolishing the Arch of Reunification. In June 2024, Kim signed a security and defense treaty with Russia, while supplying Russia with material for the Russo-Ukrainian war. In October, North Korea sent soldiers to assist Russian units in the Kursk campaign.
North Korean authorities and state-run media state that Kim Jong Un was born on 8 January 1982. South Korean intelligence officials believe that the actual date was 1983. The US government lists his birth year as 1984, based on the passport he used while studying in Switzerland. Ko Yong Suk, Kim's aunt who defected to the United States in 1998, also claimed the 1984 birthdate, saying Kim was the same age as her son, who was a playmate from a young age. It is thought that Kim's official birth year was changed for symbolic reasons; 1982 marked the seventieth birthday of his grandfather Kim Il Sung, and forty years after the official birth of his father Kim Jong Il. Kim Jong Un is the second of three children of Ko Yong Hui and Kim Jong Il; his elder brother, Kim Jong Chul, was born on 25 September 1981, while his younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, is believed to have been born in 1987. He is a grandson of Kim Il Sung, who was the founder of and led North Korea from its establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. Kim is the first leader of North Korea to have been born a North Korean citizen; his father was born in the Soviet Union and his grandfather was born in Korea during the Japanese colonial period. All of Kim Jong Il's children are said to have lived in Switzerland, as well as the mother of the two youngest sons, who lived in Geneva for some time. First reports said that Kim Jong Un attended the private International School of Berne in Gümligen in Switzerland under the name "Chol-pak" or "Pak-chol" from 1993 to 1998. In April 2012, new documents came to light indicating that Kim Jong Un had lived in Switzerland since 1991 or 1992, earlier than previously thought. The Laboratory of Anthropology and Anatomy at the University of Lyon, analyzed a picture of Kim Jong Un from 2012 and the picture of a student believed to be Kim, taken at the Liebefeld Steinhölzli school in 1999. Anthropometric facial comparison produced a 95% match, and the forensic anthropologists involved at the occasion expressed being convinced that the two photos depict the same person.
Then-councilor Ueli Studer, representing the municipal school board of Köniz, Switzerland, confirmed that a North Korean student had attended the Liebefeld-Steinhölzli public school from August 1998 until 2000 fall. Kim was registered under the name "Pak-un" or "Un-pak" as the son of an employee of the North Korean embassy in Bern. He first attended a special class for foreign-language children and later attended the regular classes of the 6th, 7th, 8th and part of the final 9th year, leaving the school abruptly in the autumn of 2000. Former school headmaster Peter Burri described the North Korean teenager as "well-integrated, hardworking, and ambitious". However, his grades and attendance rating were reported to have been poor. The ambassador of North Korea in Switzerland, Ri Chol, had a close relationship with Kim Jong-un and acted as his mentor, and Kim was chaperoned by an older student, thought to be his bodyguard. Kim was described by classmates as a shy child who was awkward with girls and indifferent to political issues. He distinguished himself in sports and had a fascination with the American National Basketball Association and Michael Jordan; a friend said he had been shown pictures of Kim with Kobe Bryant and Toni Kukoč. Another classmate said Kim had told him that he was the son of the leader of North Korea. The Washington Post reported in 2009 that Kim Jong Un's schoolfriends recalled he "spent hours doing meticulous pencil drawings" of Jordan. He was also obsessed with computer games, and was a fan of Jackie Chan action movies. His elder brother Kim Jong Chul attended the school with him. Most analysts agree that Kim Jong Un attended Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang from 2002 to 2007. Kim obtained two degrees, one in physics at Kim Il Sung University and another as an Army officer at the Kim Il Sung Military University. In late February 2018, Reuters reported that Kim and his father had used forged passports—supposedly issued by Brazil and dated 26 February 1996—to apply for visas in various countries. Both 10-year passports carry a stamp saying "Embassy of Brazil in Prague". Kim Jong Un's passport records the name "Josef Pwag" and a date of birth of 1 February 1983. For many years, only one confirmed photograph of Kim was known to exist outside North Korea, apparently taken in the mid-1990s, when he was eleven. Occasionally, other supposed images of him surfaced but were often disputed. In June 2010, shortly before he was given official posts and publicly introduced to the North Korean people, more pictures were released, taken when he was attending school in Switzerland. The first official image of him as an adult was a group photograph released on 30 September 2010, at the end of the party conference that effectively anointed him, in which he is seated in the front row, two places from his father. This was followed by newsreel footage of him attending the conference.
Kim Jong Un's eldest half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, had been the favorite to succeed, but reportedly fell out of favor after 2001, when he was caught attempting to enter Japan using a fake passport to visit Tokyo Disneyland. Kim Jong Nam was killed in Malaysia in 2017 by suspected North Korean agents. Kim Jong Il's former personal chef, Kenji Fujimoto, revealed details regarding Kim Jong Un, with whom he had a good relationship, stating that he was favored to be his father's successor. Fujimoto also said that Jong Un was favored by his father over his elder brother, Kim Jong Chul, reasoning that Jong Chul is too feminine in character, while Jong Un is "exactly like his father". Furthermore, Fujimoto stated that "if power is to be handed over then Jong Un is the best for it. He has superb physical gifts, is a big drinker and never admits defeat." Also, according to Fujimoto, Jong Un smokes Yves Saint Laurent cigarettes, loves Johnnie Walker whisky and has a Mercedes-Benz 600 luxury sedan. When Jong Un was 18, Fujimoto described an episode where Jong Un once questioned his lavish lifestyle and asked, "we are here, playing basketball, riding horses, riding jet skis, having fun together. But what of the lives of the average people?" On 15 January 2009, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that Kim Jong Il had appointed Kim Jong Un to be his successor. On 8 March 2009, BBC News reported that Kim Jong Un was on the ballot for 2009 elections to the Supreme People's Assembly, the rubber stamp parliament of North Korea. Subsequent reports indicated that his name did not appear on the list of lawmakers, but he was later elevated to a mid-level position in the National Defense Commission, the highest decision-making body of the state and highest organisation of the North Korean military at that time. From 2009, it was understood by foreign diplomatic services that Kim was to succeed his father Kim Jong Il as the head of the Korean Workers' Party and de facto leader of North Korea. He has been named as "Brilliant Comrade". His father had also asked embassy staff abroad to pledge loyalty to his son. There have also been reports that citizens in North Korea were encouraged to sing a newly composed "song of praise" to Kim Jong Un, in a similar fashion to that of praise songs relating to Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung. Later, in June, Kim was reported to have visited China secretly to "present himself" to the Chinese leadership. The Chinese foreign ministry has strongly denied that this visit occurred. In September 2009, it was reported that Kim Jong Il had secured support for the succession plan, after a propaganda campaign. It is believed by some that Kim Jong Un was involved in the Cheonan sinking and the bombardment of Yeonpyeong to strengthen his military credentials and facilitate a successful transition of power from his father.
Kim Jong Un was made a daejang (대장), the equivalent of a four-star general in the United States, on 27 September 2010, a day ahead of a rare Workers' Party of Korea conference in Pyongyang, the first time North Korean media had mentioned him by name and despite him having no previous military experience. Despite the promotion, no further details, including verifiable portraits of Kim, were released. On 28 September 2010, he was named vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and appointed to the Central Committee of the Workers' Party, in an apparent nod to become the successor to Kim Jong Il. On 10 October 2010, Kim Jong Un was alongside his father when he attended the ruling Workers' Party's 65th-anniversary celebration. This was seen as confirming his position as the next leader of the Workers' Party. Unprecedented international press access was granted to the event, further indicating the importance of Kim Jong Un's presence. In January 2011, the government reportedly began purging around 200 protégés of both Kim Jong Un's uncle-in-law Jang Song Thaek and O Kuk Ryol, the vice chairman of the National Defence Commission, by either detention or execution to further prevent either man from rivaling Jong Un.
On 17 December 2011, Kim Jong Il died. Despite the elder Kim's plans, it was not immediately clear after his death whether Kim Jong Un would in fact take full power, and what his exact role in a new government would be. Following his father's death, Kim Jong Un was hailed as the "great successor to the revolutionary cause of Juche", "outstanding leader of the party, army and people", and "respected comrade who is identical to Supreme Commander Kim Jong Il", and was made chairman of the Kim Jong Il funeral committee. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) described Kim Jong Un as "a great person born of heaven", a propaganda term only his father and grandfather had enjoyed. The ruling Workers' Party of Korea also said in an editorial, "We vow with bleeding tears to call Kim Jong Un our supreme commander, our leader." He was publicly declared Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army on 24 December 2011, and formally appointed to the position on 30 December 2011 when the Politburo Workers' Party of Korea "courteously proclaimed that the dear respected Kim Jong Un, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the WPK, assumed the supreme commandership of the Korean People's Army". The message also declared that it was Kim Jong Il's will on 8 October 2011 that Kim Jong Un be appointed KPA supreme commander after his death. On 26 December 2011, the leading North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun reported that Kim Jong Un had been acting as chairman of the Central Military Commission, and supreme leader of the country, following his father's demise.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
