Kim Jong-nam
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Template:Koreanname north image Kim Jong-nam (born May 10, 1971), is the eldest son of Kim Jong-il, ruler of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). Until recently it was believed that he was being groomed as Kim Jong-il's successor, but recent reports suggest he has fallen from favour.
Kim was born in Pyongyang, to Sung Hae-Rim, one of Kim Jong-il's many girlfriends. In 1996 Sung was reported to have defected to the west, but intelligence officials in South Korea denied the story. Later Sung was reported to be in Moscow, where she was having treatment for clinical depression. Some reports say she died in Moscow in 2002.
Kim Jong-nam was educated at an elite school for the children of Korean Workers' Party (KWP) leaders. As the grandson of Kim Il-sung, the DPRK's absolute ruler and "Great Leader" from 1947 to 1994, he would have been treated with the utmost deference. Later, however, he was reported to have studied computer science in Japan and Switzerland, where he would have gained some knowledge of the West and of outside views of the DPRK.
In 1998 Kim was appointed to a senior position in the Ministry of Public Security, the DPRK security apparatus, indicating that he was being promoted as a future leader. He was also reported to have been appointed head of the DPRK Computer Committee, in charge of developing an information technology industry. In January 2001 he accompanied his father to Shanghai, where he had talks with Chinese officials on the IT industry.
In May 2001, however, Kim was arrested on arrival at New Tokyo International Airport (now Narita International Airport), accompanied by two women and a four-year old boy identified as his son. He was travelling on a forged Dominican Republic passport. Kim was reportedly wearing a white shirt and dark blazer along with sunglasses and a gold chain. After being detained for several days, he was deported, on the instructions of the Japanese government, to the People's Republic of China. Kim apparently told his questioners that he was in Japan to visit Tokyo Disneyland in Urayasu, also near Tokyo. The incident caused Kim Jong-il to cancel a planned visit to China because of the embarrassment to both countries.
Some analysts saw the May 2001 incident as a sign that Kim has lost power. Jong-Heon Lee writes:
- "His overseas trip with no bodyguards and officials indicates that he is out of the contention for the next leadership," a South Korean government official told United Press International on condition of anonymity. "It is unthinkable for a possible crown prince to travel overseas alone especially at a time when tensions are running high in the wake of speculations of missile or nuclear test in North Korea."
According to the Japanese magazine Shukan Shincho, Kim had made three previous clandestine visits to Japan, and had spent most of his time consorting with prostitutes in expensive bathhouses in Tokyo's Yoshiwara district. This aspect of the incident prompted commentators to point out the contrast between the situation in the DPRK, where many people are starving, with the self-indulgent lifestyles of its ruling elite. Aidan Foster-Carter wrote in the Asia Times:
- "A regime which denies liberty and even life to its subjects, preaches puritan communist morality and excoriates capitalism and the West, lets its playboy princeling swan into so-called enemy territory on a tacky fake passport, with son, two young women (neither his wife), a trunkful of cash and all the vulgar display of the nouveau riche."
It appears that Kim Jong-nam's enemies in the DPRK have used the Tokyo incident to undermine his position as Kim Jong-il's heir apparent. Kim Jong-il has another son, Kim Jong-chul (born 1981 or 1982), whose mother is Koh Young-hee, Kim's current partner. This gives Kim Jong-chul a significant advantage in the dynastic politics of the DPRK. Kim Jong-il also has a daughter, Kim Sul-song (born 1974), whose mother is Kim's current wife, Kim Young-suk. Kim Young-suk, however, has been out of favour for many years.
In February 2003 the DPRK People's Army began a propaganda campaign under the slogan "The Respected Mother is the Most Faithful and Loyal Subject to the Dear Leader Comrade Supreme Commander." Since the "Respected Mother" was described as "[devoting] herself to the personal safety of the comrade supreme commander," and "[assisting] the comrade supreme commander nearest to his body," it is assumed that the "Respected Mother" is Koh Young-hee, and that the campaign is designed to promote Kim Jong-chul, her son. (A similar campaign was launched in praise of Kim Jong-il's mother during the later years of Kim Il-sung's life.)
This suggests that Kim Jong-chul, despite his youth, may have emerged as a serious rival, with Army backing, to Kim Jong-nam as the long-term successor to power in the DPRK. Since the loyalty of the Army is the real foundation of the Kim family's continuing hold on power in the DPRK, this would be a serious development for Kim Jong-nam's prospects. In late 2003 it was reported that Kim Jong-nam was living in China, lending strength to this belief.
Hwang Jang-yup, a former KWP secretary for international affairs who defected to the South in 1997, said in 2003: "An heir must be the child of a woman a king loves, and it is true that Kim Jong-il loves Koh Young-hee most. The fate of Kim Jong-nam has finished."