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Review | The Great Successor: Kim Jong-un biography follows North Korean leader from awkward teen to elusive dictator

  • Anna Fifield digs deep into the dictator’s early life, speaking with former classmates and others
  • She paints picture of a calculated and ruthless ruler whom many dismissed when he first succeeded his late father

Reading Time:5 minutes
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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi in May. Anna Fifield, in her biography The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong-un, paints a picture of him as a determined, unremitting leader bent on survival. Photo: AFP

The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong-un by Anna Fifield, pub. Hachette. 4/5 stars

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North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un is an enigmatic figure for all that he is instantly recognisable, a young man who could easily usher the world into its next major conflict. Yet trying to gain an under­standing of who he is can be – to put it mildly – a challenge.
Journalists, diplomats and world leaders have tried to unravel the man, searching for clues to his personality and where he might lead his hermit kingdom. This quest has accelerated in the years since Donald Trump came to power – the pair having traded insults before meeting, first in Singapore and then in Hanoi. Nevertheless, key biographical details of Kim’s life remain unknown.

As Washington Post journalist Anna Fifield writes in The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong-un, an ambitious biography, the North Korean leader has spent most of his life behind the curtain of the world’s most secretive regime. He only came to wide attention in 2009, when, at the age of 25, he was formally introduced to the country’s elite as his father’s successor.

Late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (left) with his son in 2011. Photo: AP
Late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (left) with his son in 2011. Photo: AP
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Kim grew up in walled compounds behind five-metre-high iron gates, with enormous playrooms filled with “more toys than any European toy store”, soundproofed cinemas and kitchens loaded with French pastries, smoked salmon and pâté. This at a time when many North Koreans were starving. There were gardens “so large that they called them parks, with artificial waterfalls running into artificial lakes”.

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