Unlike his father, Kim Jong-un had little time to grow into the role of Supreme Leader.

When the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il died of a heart attack on December 17, 2011, his third son and "Great Successor" was only 27 years old.

He went to school in Switzerland and only moved up to the leadership as deputy chairman of the Central Military Commission a year before his father's death.

Would the young dictator offspring manage to consolidate his power despite a lack of experience?

Friederike Böge

Political correspondent for China, North Korea and Mongolia.

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His older half-brother didn't think so.

Kim Jong-un will only nominally be the leader, while power is held by others, said Kim Jong-nam in an interview while in exile in China.

He called the third generation of the dynastic line of succession a "joke" and predicted that his half-brother's regime would soon collapse.

A mistake with grave consequences: five years later, Kim Jong-nam was murdered by Pyongyang's henchmen at the airport in Kuala Lumpur.

Before that, the new ruler had already got rid of his uncle Jang Song-thaek.

In 2013 he had him declared "human scum" and executed.

With such ruthless purges, Kim Jong-un cemented his power and made room for a new generation of loyalists.

The popular dictator

At first he drew his legitimacy from an imitation of his grandfather Kim Il-sung, the former resistance fighter and founder of the state.

He copied his haircut, clothes, gestures and apparently helped with a facial operation.

But Kim Jong-un soon developed his own profile.

Instead of being godlike like his father, he was close to the people and almost fallible.

In tears he apologized in October 2020 that he had not been able to improve the living conditions of the population.

He also institutionalized his power by strengthening the Labor Party, which was neglected under his father.

At the same time, Kim pushed ahead with economic reforms.

It allowed farmers to freely sell some of their produce and allowed private markets, called jangmadang, to flourish across the country, where women sold imported goods or services.

In the state-owned companies, Kim incentivized management to increase production.

He promoted consumer culture to keep the North Korean elites happy.

The number of cell phones rose by leaps and bounds, even if you can't use them to make international calls or surf the global Internet.

Kim, who grew up in Switzerland, was clearly trying to give his regime a modern face.

He had himself photographed in front of French cosmetics and Disney characters, and appeared in public with his wife, Ri Sol-ju.

Severe sanctions for the North Korean nuclear program

He satisfied the powerful military by expanding the nuclear and missile program at high speed. In 2017, Kim Jong-un officially declared his country a nuclear power. The price for this was harsh international sanctions that massively restricted North Korea's scope for economic development. The conflict with the United States soared that some experts saw the world in 2017 on the brink of war.

Kim Jong-un tried to get out of this predicament by taking the outstretched hand of South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

He sent his sister Kim Yo-jong to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang and met with Moon two months later for the first inter-Korean summit since 2007. President Donald Trump saw his chance for a Nobel Peace Prize and gave Kim Jong-un a first: the first A North Korean leader meets with an American president.

Relations with important partner China strengthened

Neither in Singapore nor in Hanoi, or at the Panmunjom meeting, were both sides able to reconcile their widely divergent positions. Kim Jong-un did not want to give up nuclear state status because he saw it as life insurance for his regime. Trump turned down his offer in 2019 to abandon parts of the Yongbyon nuclear site in return for a significant part of the sanctions being lifted. There have been no significant talks between Washington and Pyongyang since then. Relations with China, on the other hand, ultimately developed in the spirit of Kim Jong-uns. In contrast, Kim Jong-un succeeded in mending the strained relationship with the protective power China. He met Xi Jinping four times in a year. He met South Korean President Moon five times, but ultimately left him out in the rain.

Then came the corona pandemic and led the already isolated country even deeper into isolation. Kim Jong-un had the borders closed. Most of the diplomats and aid workers left the country. Formal trade and smuggling across the Chinese border have now almost completely come to a standstill - with devastating effects on the supply situation. The more the economic situation darkens, the more Kim Jong-un pulls the reins again.

The security apparatus dominates foreign policy.

Inside, the space for private dealers is becoming scarcer again.

With a new “law against reactionary ideology and culture” and ideological campaigns, the regime is cracking down on cultural influences from South Korea that have come into the country through films and music videos.

South Korean colloquial language, haircuts and dance styles are "more dangerous than the armed enemies," whispered the state media.

In his first public speech as Supreme Leader in 2012, Kim Jong-un had promised that North Koreans "never have to tighten their belts again."

Almost ten years later it is clear that he has clearly missed this goal.