By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (Yonhap) — North Korea’s leader-in-waiting, Kim Jong-un, was ranked ninth among the 10 most intriguing persons of the year, CNN reported Thursday.
Julian Assange, the founder of the online whistleblower WikiLeaks, topped the list, followed by U.S. President Barack Obama, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
Marisol Valles Garcia, a police chief in Mexico, came in fifth, Chilean miner Edison Pena sixth, kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart seventh, Tony Hayward, the former CEO of BP, eighth, and Antoine Dodson, whose thoughts about rape went viral on video, 10th.
Kim Jong-un, described by CNN as the “presumed future leader of North Korea,” was appointed in September as the vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, led by his father, Kim Jong-il.
The party post to control the 1.2 million-strong military is seen as a sure road to leadership of the communist North, just as in China, where Vice President Xi Jinping was appointed to the same position in the Chinese Communist Party the following month, apparently to replace Chinese President Hu Jintao in 2012.
The 27-year-old heir is believed to be behind a series of provocations the North has launched in recent months to escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula to the highest level since the end of the three-year Korean War in 1953.
The North’s attack on South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island on the disputed western sea border in March killed four people. It was the first attack on South Korean soil to kill civilians since the end of the Korean War.
South Korea and its allies blame North Korea for the sinking of a South Korean warship, which killed 46 sailors in waters near the sea border in the Yellow Sea in March, although Pyongyang denies responsibility.
The provocations are seen as part of the heir’s effort to rally support from the military, just like his ailing father is suspected of masterminding the downing of a Korean Air plane in 1987, killing all 115 passengers.
Kim Jong-il was being groomed at the time to succeed his father and North Korea’s founder, Kim Il-sung, who died of a heart attack in 1994.
Amid criticism of the South Korean military’s feeble reaction to the provocations, President Lee Myung-bak has ordered the use of air, ground and naval forces in response to any further hostilities from the North, spawning concerns of an all-out war.
Lee, however, earlier this week called for the resumption next year of the six-party talks on ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons, and stressed the need for inter-Korean dialogue to play a role in the North’s denuclearization.
Seoul and Washington had been adamant in demanding Pyongyang apologize for the provocations and show sincerity in its denuclearization commitment before the resumption of the nuclear talks.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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