Kim Jong-un (1983?-…) became the leader of North Korea in December 2011. He is the third leader of the country’s dynasty (family of rulers). His grandfather Kim Il-sung established North Korea as a Communist state in 1948 and ruled until 1994. Kim Jong-un’s father, Kim Jong-il, ruled from 1994 to 2011. Kim Jong-un came to power following his father’s death on Dec. 17, 2011. He was named “supreme leader of the party, state, and army.”
Little is known about Kim Jong-un’s life. Many experts believe he was born on Jan. 8, 1983, though others believe he was born in 1982 or 1984. He is Kim Jong-il’s third and youngest son. His mother was the opera star Ko Young-hee, Kim Jong-il’s third wife. Some experts believe Kim Jong-un attended school in Switzerland in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. From 2002 to 2007, he studied military science at Kim Il-sung Military University in Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital.
Experts believe Kim Jong-il prepared Kim Jong-un for leadership during the first decade of the 2000’s. According to some intelligence reports, Kim Jong-un began working for the North Korean government in 2007. He is also believed to have become active in the country’s ruling Communist party in that year.
In 2010, Kim Jong-un was promoted to four-star general in the North Korean army. He also was named to the Communist party’s Central Committee and became vice chairman of its Central Military Commission. These appointments led observers to believe that Kim Jong-il had chosen Kim Jong-un as North Korea’s next leader.
After Kim Jong-un gained power, he continued to develop North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, which had begun under his grandfather. In 2017, North Korea began a series of missile tests that increased international tensions. In 2018, tensions eased somewhat as Kim met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. The leaders pledged to remove nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula. Also in 2018, Kim and United States President Donald Trump held a meeting that resulted in a similar pledge. The United States also agreed to halt joint military exercises with South Korea. At a meeting in February 2019, negotiations centered around Kim’s hopes of having the international economic sanctions against North Korea lifted and Trump’s desire to end North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs. However, no agreement was reached. North Korea soon resumed its missile testing and tension rose again. During 2019, Kim also met in separate summits with President Xi Jinping of China and President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
