Kim Jong Eun

Kim Jong Eun, according to propaganda described in a recent Chinese magazine article , learned to drive at age 3. By 8, he could safely maneuver dirt roads at 75 mph. As a teenager, he mastered four foreign languages. He is now learning three more. The emerging biography of North Korea's new leader, considered fictitious in nearly every country but his own, portrays him as the ultimate quick study, a poet and a marksman, an economics whiz and a military strategist. The mythmaking is particularly important because Kim Jong Eun,...

The Obama administration's approach toward North Korea has been described as "strategic patience. " A more accurate evaluation of U.S. policy would be "failure. " The administration has alternately wooed and threatened North Korea for four years, with no discernible effect. Here's what failure looks like: Since President Obama took office, Pyongyang has conducted several missile tests and two nuclear weapons tests , the most recent on Feb. 12. When the international community has tried to hold Pyongyang accountable, the regime has...

The sudden thaw in relations with North Korea [ "North Korea agrees to suspend some nuclear activities," front page, March 1] inspires the following proposal: Invite Kim Jong Eun and several of his advisers to visit the White House. Put them up there or at Blair House and give them a full tour of the District. Then to New York for a look at the Big Apple and from there to Disney World for several days of entertainment. On to New Orleans for Saturday night on Bourbon Street. Then to California's San Joaquin Valley for a look at the...

The item was too delicious to resist: New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, he of the don't-worry, be-happy approach to the federal deficit, had been forced to declare personal bankruptcy. Except it wasn't true. The tidbit was satire, from a Web site called the Daily Currant . The Currant's "tell" was obvious to anyone who took introductory economics: Krugman, it said, had attempted, like a good Keynesian, to "spend his way out of debt," after "racking up $84,000 in a single month . . .

The mystery surrounding that female companion of North Korean leader Kim Jong Eun is solved — and sorry, ladies, he's off the market. That lucky gal who's been spotted in the company of the fresh-faced dictator (whose impressive résumé includes "human rights abuser" and "freedom quasher") is being identified by state media as his wife, "Comrade Ri Sol Ju . " So perhaps it's time to alert those Vogue editors who found Syrian first lady Asma al-Assad such a compelling profile subject . After the mag canned its glowing story...

SEOUL — Kim Jong Eun is portrayed in North Korea's official media as a leader without comparison, blessed with a supreme bloodline, flanked by a supportive wife and endowed with the "brilliant" ability to revamp the economy, command an army and guide the space program. But one thing is notably absent from these descriptions: any mention of his two brothers, both once rumored to be heirs to the family-run empire. As Kim prepares for his nationally celebrated birthday on Tuesday, thought to be his 30th,...

BEIJING — North Korea on Wednesday named its young leader, Kim Jong Eun , "marshal" of the military, a preeminent job title that analysts say is designed to reinforce his absolute power and warn off members of senior elites who might question it. The title appears redundant, because Kim already served as the military's supreme commander. But the timing of the announcement is significant, outside experts say, coming just two days after the North dismissed a top army leader — perceived...

TOKYO — North Korean state media disclosed Wednesday that leader Kim Jong Eun is married, a startling announcement in a country that has long kept its first ladies nearly invisible. The revelation ends weeks of speculation about the identity of a slender woman with a stylish bob who had accompanied Kim during several recent public appearances. State media identified the woman as Kim's wife, "Comrade Ri Sol Ju. " There was no mention of Ri's age or of how long the couple have been...

A great novel can take implausible fact and turn it into entirely believable fiction. That's the genius of " The Orphan Master's Son . " Adam Johnson has taken the papier-mache creation that is North Korea and turned it into a real and riveting place that readers will find unforgettable. This is a novel worth getting excited about, one which more than delivers on its pre-publication buzz. The setting in remote North Korea is oddly more timely because of the recent death of Kim Jong Il , the...

SEOUL — With snow blanketing the wide streets of its gray capital and wailing mourners lining the sidewalks, North Korea staged an extravagant farewell Wednesday to its autocratic ruler of 17 years, Kim Jong Il. The funeral for the man known as North Korea's "Dear Leader" marked a ceremonial junction in the nuclear-armed state's second father-to-son power transfer, as state media assured the nation that its next leader, Kim Jong Eun, was every...

The Obama administration bluntly warned North Korea on Monday that it will use military force if necessary to protect the United States and its allies in Asia from a North Korean nuclear strike or to prevent the impoverished North from selling nuclear weapons or expertise. Washington announced fresh sanctions against North Korea on Monday amid rising tension on the Korean Peninsula. The U.S. military also began annual joint exercises with ally South Korea, over objections from North Korea and an announcement that it would...

SEOUL — South Korea's decision to support a United Nations investigation into human rights abuses by North Korea signals that Seoul's new conservative administration is willing to pressure its neighbor on such issues — even if it hurts the chances for engagement. South Korea's pledge Wednesday to give "active" support to the investigation comes just two days after the inauguration of President Park Geun-hye and is likely to infuriate the North, which views...

SEOUL — In power for barely more than a year, North Korean leader Kim Jong Eun has adhered overwhelmingly to the policies of his father, using a familiar mix of internal repression and nuclear showmanship while all but dashing hopes that he would emerge as a reformer. Although analysts caution that Kim can still change course, the apparent status quo on policy carries dark implications, prolonging a government that relishes isolation, threatens its neighbors, values weapons over...

North Korea's nuclear test Tuesday has the makings of an epochal event — unless Washington and Seoul shape up and deal Kim Jong Eun's regime a substantial, although nonmilitary, blow. Pyongyang's blast , two months after its first successful intercontinental ballistic missile test in five tries since 1998, and the regime's demonstrated progress in long-range missile technology are propelling the totalitarian nation toward bona fide nuclear capability. With that comes the capability to provoke its...

The North Korean underground nuclear test confirmed by U.S. intelligence agencies on Tuesday served as a stark reminder that the unpredictable and largely inscrutable government in Pyongyang remains a wild card for President Obama's second term — a nuclear threat to U.S. allies in Asia and a potential arms merchant to the highest bidder. The timing of the test was interpreted in Washington as an attempt by North Korea's young new leader to upstage Obama...

SEOUL — With its detonation Tuesday of a "smaller and light" nuclear device, North Korea moved closer to its top technological goal of building an atomic weapon small enough to mount on a long-range missile, a capability that would turn the secretive police state from a regional menace into a global one. Security analysts cautioned that there is no immediate way to verify the North's assertion that it has succeeded in manufacturing a smaller...

SEOUL — North Korea on Wednesday further burnished the credentials of Kim Jong Eun, awarding him several new titles and all but finalizing the ascension of the young and untested leader. Kim was named first secretary of the Workers' Party, a newly created position, the country's state-run media said. He was also made a standing member of the Politburo and elevated from vice chairman to chairman of the Central Military Commission, according to the Associated Press, citing Pyongyang's state media.

SEOUL — A junior official from the British Embassy in North Korea accompanied leader Kim Jong Eun on a roller coaster last week, British officials have confirmed, highlighting the tentative rapprochement between the two countries in recent years. Photographs of the ride, taken during a visit to a newly opened theme park in Pyongyang, were circulated as part of what appears to be a publicity drive by the authoritarian state's new leader, who is promoting a youthful and upbeat image that...

BEIJING — Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi summoned North Korea's ambassador to China on Tuesday to tell him Beijing was "strongly dissatisfied and resolutely opposed" to North Korea's nuclear test , the ministry said. China urged its longtime ally "to honor its commitment to denuclearization and not to take action that may worsen the situation. " Chinese leaders have spent recent weeks trying strenuously to dissuade Pyongyang from the nuclear test, according to Western diplomats speaking on...

SEOUL — North Korea on Tuesday conducted an underground explosion of what it called a "miniaturized" nuclear weapon, testing a technology that could theoretically be paired with a long-range missile to threaten the United States. Pyongyang confirmed the test nearly three hours after unusual seismic activity was detected near the secretive police state's mountainous test site. The test follows weeks of threats from the North to build up its nuclear capacity and carry out an "all-out action of high intensity.