# Kim Jong-un **Kim Jong-un** is the third-generation hereditary ruler of [[North Korea]], in power since December 2011. Grandson of [[Kim Il-sung]] and son of [[Kim Jong-il]], he turned the country into a declared nuclear-weapons state, met [[Donald Trump]] three times, and made Pyongyang a military partner of [[Vladimir Putin]]'s Russia. For the KB he is the case study in personal summitry with a dictator and in how a sanctioned state finds a patron. The country, its arsenal and its sanctions are on [[North Korea]]; this page covers the man. ## Succession His birth year is officially given as 1984 (other accounts say 1982 or 1983). He was schooled partly in Switzerland and was the least-known of Kim Jong-il's sons until he was made a four-star general and vice-chairman of the party's Central Military Commission in September 2010. When his father died on 17 December 2011 he became supreme commander within days and took the party's top post in April 2012. He consolidated power by eliminating rivals inside the family. His uncle and regent-figure Jang Song-thaek was executed in December 2013 for "treachery." His exiled half-brother Kim Jong-nam was killed with VX nerve agent at Kuala Lumpur airport in February 2017. ## Nuclear breakout and the Trump summits Four of North Korea's six nuclear tests, including its largest (September 2017), and its first ICBM launches came under Kim. After a year of "fire and fury" threats, he and Trump held three meetings: | Date | Place | Outcome | |---|---|---| | 12 June 2018 | Singapore | Joint statement committing to "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," with no timetable or verification | | 27–28 February 2019 | Hanoi | Collapsed over the scope of sanctions relief versus dismantling the Yongbyon complex | | 30 June 2019 | Panmunjom, DMZ | Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to step into North Korea; no agreement | Trump later said the two "fell in love" through their letters. The summits ended the 2017 crisis but produced no disarmament, and Kim kept building. ## Turning to Moscow Kim met Putin in Vladivostok (2019) and at the Vostochny Cosmodrome (2023), and hosted him in Pyongyang in June 2024, where they signed a mutual-assistance treaty. He then sent troops and munitions for Russia's war in Ukraine. In September 2025 he stood beside Putin and [[Xi Jinping]] at Beijing's military parade marking the end of the Second World War. ## 2026 - **Party congress.** The Ninth Party Congress (February 2026) re-elected him general secretary and declared the country's nuclear status "irreversible and permanent." - **Successor.** South Korea's NIS told lawmakers in February 2026 that his teenage daughter, Kim Ju-ae — introduced to the public at a missile launch in 2022 — was being set up as his successor; reports differ on whether the agency called the designation complete or close. Pyongyang has not confirmed it. - **Trump.** In August 2026 Trump said he would meet Kim "later this year." His sister Kim Yo-jong said relations with Trump were "still excellent" but denied the two were in contact. ## Why it matters for the KB Kim is the [[Personalist Regime]] in its purest form: power inherited, rivals killed, ideology reduced to the family. The right's reception split along predictable lines. Trump-aligned commentators credited the summits with ending the 2017 crisis. Hawks and most arms-control experts said the summits gave Kim legitimacy and got nothing verifiable in return. ## See Also - [[North Korea]] · [[North Korean Influence]] · [[South Korea]] - [[Kim Il-sung]] · [[Kim Jong-il]] - [[Donald Trump]] · [[Vladimir Putin]] · [[Xi Jinping]] - [[Personalist Regime]] · [[Dictators in World History Hub]]