Meet North Korea’s New Top Cop

There’s a new sheriff in Pyongyang: South Korea’s Dong-a Ilbo reports that Kim Jong-un, the son of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, has been named the head of the country’s secret police.

Kim Jong-il is in failing health, and the Dear Leader has reportedly set up Kim Jong-un, his third son, as successor. Bloomberg, quoting a senior South Korean official, suggests that a handover of power may be imminent.

The younger Kim is a real mystery. We have only one confirmed photo of Kim Jong-un, seen here: a portrait of the future dictator as a bratty-looking 11-year-old. (Japan’sMainichi Shimbun claims to have obtained a photo of the little prince as a seventh-grader at a school in Switzerland.)

Much of what we know about Kim Jong-il’s son comes from “Kenji Fujimoto,” the pseudonymous Japanese sushi chef who wrote a tell-all about his years cooking for the North Korean dynasty. He is said to be spoiled and belligerent, precisely the kind of man you don’t want to have with a small nuclear arsenal at his disposal.