North Korea: Ten years since Kim Jong Un came to power

After assuming leadership of North Korea at a young age ten years ago, Kim Jong-un is now one of the most experienced leaders on the planet and, according to analysts, may defy Western powers for decades to come.

Unlike many of his counterparts, he does not need to worry about elections, limiting the number of terms he can serve, nor even about old age, as he is only 37 years old, and can remain at the helm of North Korea for many decades to come. , if his health allows.

The path he has traveled over the past ten years allows him to predict, according to experts, his future course, between the isolation of his country and the development of nuclear technology.

“He can not feed the people, but he is able to keep the political regime alive,” said Su Kim, an analyst at Rand Corporation. “And that’s more important to Kim.”

It was originally considered a subordinate of North Korean generals and Labor Party bureaucrats. Kim Jong-il’s son and successor, who died on December 17, 2011, seized power by force, executing his uncle Yang Song Taek in 2013 on charges of treason.

He is also accused of ordering the murder of Kim Jong-Nam’s half-brother, who was killed at Kuala Lumpur airport with a neurotoxic agent in 2017.

At the same time, Kim proceeded with four nuclear tests and in 2017 launched a ballistic missile that can hit the entire territory of the United States, in defiance of the imposition of increasingly severe sanctions by the UN Security Council.

For months, he used harsh language against US President Donald Trump, raising fears of an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula.

He then announced that North Korea’s nuclear arsenal was “complete”.

“A temporary approach”

With the help of former South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Kim became in 2018 the first North Korean leader to meet with an incumbent US president in Singapore.

This meeting was made possible largely due to Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal, according to Su Kim.

“The development of the armaments program, the credible nuclear and missile threat, as well as the temporary approach of the leaders – Trump, Moon and Kim – have helped to create the necessary conditions,” she said.

During a single meeting, the young leader charmed the American president, who was almost 40 years older than him.

Trump suddenly began to dismiss the “special relationship” he has with Kim, sometimes referring to “love” between them, although in the past he had called him a “little rocket man”.

That same year, Kim met with Moon and repeatedly with Chinese President Xi Jinping, a key ally of North Korea.

“It was fascinating,” said Sung-yun Lee, a professor of Korean studies at Tufts University. “The tough dictator with the ridiculous figure has transformed into a pro-peace reformer, a responsible nuclear weapons administrator and the Gulag, possibly willing to proceed with the denuclearization of his country.”

The second summit between Trump and Kim in Hanoi came to a standstill as there was no agreement on easing sanctions against North Korea and any concessions Pyongyang would make in return.

Another meeting in the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas also did not bear fruit.

“Common opponent”

Diplomats and experts allege that Kim Jong-un never intended to abandon the idea of ​​developing nuclear weapons altogether, a plan to which North Korea has devoted a great deal of money and because of which it has been isolated from the rest of the world.

Pyongyang even intended to continue developing its arsenal.

The ties between Pyongyang and Beijing are “a love-hate relationship between two ‘enemy brothers’,” according to Professor Li.

“Neither of them adores the other, but they both recognize the other as their closest ally in terms of strategy, ideology, history and treat the United States as a common enemy,” he added.

“Significant success”

It is enough for the North Korean leader to look across the border, in China, to see that increasing wealth can boost the popularity of the leader of a one-party state.

North Korea’s economy has flourished for decades and its population suffers from chronic food shortages.

To these difficulties is added the complete closure of the country’s borders in order to prevent the spread of covid-19.

“Economically, North Korea ranks last in the world,” said Park Wong-gon, a professor of North Korean studies at Seha’s Ewha Womans University.

“But with its nuclear arsenal, it is capable of influencing the two world powers, the United States and China,” he added. “I would call it a major success for Pyongyang.”