Kim Jong-un (born 8
January 1982–84 or 5 July 1984) is the supreme leader of North Korea. Kim was
declared the supreme leader following the state funeral of his
father on 28 December 2011. In May 2017, the North Korean government
claimed that the CIA and the South Korean National Intelligence
Service hired a North Korean lumberjack
who worked
in Russia to assassinate Kim Jong-un with a "biochemical
weapon" that was both radioactive and nano-poisonous at the
same time and its effect would have been delayed by a few months. In 2009,
reports suggested that Kim Jong-un was a diabetic and suffered
from hypertension. He is a smoker. On 25 July 2012, North Korean
state media reported for the first time that Kim Jong-un is married to Ri
Sol-ju.
Most analysts agree
that Kim Jong-un attended Kim Il-sung University, a leading officer-training
school in Pyongyang, from 2002 to 2007.. In 2013, Kim Jong-un was awarded an
honorary doctorate in Economics by HELP University, a
private Malaysian university. He was described as shy, a good student who
got along well with his classmates and was a basketball fan. On 10 October
2010, alongside his father, Kim Jong-un attended the ruling Workers' Party's
65th anniversary celebration. This was seen as confirming his position as the next
leader of the Workers' Party. 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 on a fake
passport to visit Tokyo Disneyland. Kim Jong-nam was killed in
Malaysia in 2017 by suspected North Korean agents. Under Kim Jong-un, North
Korea has continued to develop nuclear weapons.