# Kim Jong-un

Kim Jong-un (born 8 January 1983) is the supreme leader of North Korea since 2011 and General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2021.

## Quotes

* I hear from higher up that China seems to be succeeding on many fronts – engineering, commerce, hotels, agriculture - everything. In many ways, don’t we need to take them as a model example for us?
** As recounted by household chef Kenji Fujimoto,
* It is the party’s steadfast determination to ensure that the people will never have to tighten their belt again.
** April 15th 2012 speech in Kim Il-Sung Square,
* Yesterday, we were a weak and small country trampled upon by big powers. Today, our geopolitical location remains the same, but we are transformed into a proud political and military power and an independent people that no one can dare provoke. The days are gone forever when our enemies could blackmail us with nuclear bombs.
** April 15th 2012 speech in Kim Il-Sung Square,
* The effort to develop the economy and improve the people’s standard of living can be successful only when it is backed by powerful military capabilities, nuclear forces. In the spirit with which we conquered outer space and with the mettle with which we succeeded in the nuclear test of a high level, we must push ahead simultaneously with the campaign to defend the country and the construction of an economic giant, and thus achieve the happiness of the people and the prosperity of the powerful Paektusan nation without fail.
** Report to the March 2013 Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, announcing the byungjin (dual advancement) policy line
* President Donald Trump's remarks which described the U.S. option through straightforward expression of his will have convinced me, rather than frightening or stopping me, that the path I chose is correct and that it is the one I have to follow to the last. [...] Action is the best option in treating the dotard who, hard of hearing, is uttering only what he wants to say. [...] I am now thinking hard about what response he could have expected when he allowed such eccentric words to trip off his tongue. Whatever Trump might have expected, he will face results beyond his expectation. I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire.
** Official statement from September 22, 2017, as quoted in Washington Post
* In no way would the United States dare to ignite a war against me and our country. The whole of its mainland is within the range of our nuclear strike and the nuclear button is on my office desk all the time; the United States needs to be clearly aware that this is not merely a threat but a reality.
** New Year 2018 address
* I know the Americans are inherently disposed against us, but when they talk with us, they will see that I am not the kind of person who would shoot nuclear weapons to the south, over the Pacific or at the United States.
** Said to Moon Jae-in during the April 2018 inter-Korean summit according to a South Korean government spokesman, as quoted in Slate
* Only when one is equipped with the formidable striking capabilities, overwhelming military power that cannot be stopped by anyone, one can prevent a war, guarantee the security of the country and contain and put under control all threats and blackmails by the imperialists.
** As quoted in "Kim Jong Un Defends Nuclear Tests, Says 'powerful Weapons' Help Mitigate Threats" in Republic World (28 March 2022)

## Quotes about Kim Jong-un

* Friedman: In an op-ed in 2013 in the Los Angeles Times, you wrote, “South Africa has illustrated that long-term security can be far better assured by the abrogation of nuclear weapons than by their retention.” It seems that Kim Jong Un of North Korea has, at least according to his propaganda, learned the opposite lesson: that if you’re [Libya’s Muammar] Qaddafi or Saddam [Hussein in Iraq] and you give up your [pursuit of] nuclear weapons, you reduce your security [and bring about your demise at the hands of the U.S. and its allies]. Or if you’re Ukraine and you sign up to the Budapest Memorandum, and then Russia two decades later invades you, that you’ve actually given up security by relinquishing nuclear weapons.
    De Klerk: I still agree with [what I wrote]. Ultimately, the world will be safe only when all the nuclear states follow South Africa’s example and dismantle their nuclear weapons.
   * F. W. de Klerk as interviewed by Uri Friedman, "Why One President Gave Up His Country's Nukes". The Atlantic, (9 September 2017).
* I think that Mr Kim Jong Un has obviously won this round. He has completed his strategic task: he has a nuclear weapon, he has missiles of global reach, up to 13,000 km, which can reach almost any point of the globe. He is an absolutely competent and already mature politician.
** Russian President Vladimir Putin,
* How many guys- he was like twenty-six or twenty-five when his father died- take over these tough generals, and all of a sudden... he goes in, he takes over, and he's the boss. It's incredible. He wiped out the uncle, he wiped out this one, that one. I mean, this guy doesn't play games, and we can't play games with him.
** Donald Trump, campaign speech (9 January 2016)
* Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me "old," when I would NEVER call him "short and fat?" Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend - and maybe someday that will happen!
** Donald Trump, tweet from November 11, 2017
* He's the head of a country, and I mean he's the strong head, don't let anyone think anything different. He speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.
** Donald Trump, speaking on Fox and Friends (15 June 2018)
* I was really tough and so was he, and we went back and forth, and then we fell in love, OK? No, really. He wrote me beautiful letters, and they’re great letters. We fell in love.
** Donald Trump, political rally in Wheeling, West Virginia (29 September 2018)

## External links

* "Exclusive: Kim Jong Un is now ‘Great Comrade,’ no longer ‘Great Leader’" by Cheon Soram, Radio Free Asia (February 29, 2024)