First we had the Great Leader.  Then came the Dear Leader.  Now. . .

The Tiger Beat Leader?  Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration — he’s 25, not a teenager (the photo above, which apparently is the only one available, is from when he was 10).  But it’s not much of one:

Reports from North and South Korea yesterday appeared to confirm what until now has been only rumour – that Kim Jong Un, the youngest son of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, is being lined up to inherit his father’s title. It would be the second hereditary succession in the last remaining totalitarian communist dictatorship – and sets the scene for a period of extreme instability in one of the world’s most unpredictable countries.

One of his closest and most hardline generals yesterday promised the army’s loyalty to the “bloodline” of the senior Mr Kim, a virtual guarantee that one of his children will succeed him.“We will firmly carry on the blood-line of Mangyongdae and Mount Paektu with our guns, faithfully upholding the leadership of our supreme commander,” Pak Jae Kyong, a senior general of the North Korean Defence Ministry, was quoted in the state media as having said at a recent rally for Kim Jong Il’s birthday. Mount Paektu is the sacred mountain where Kim Jong Il, according to the cult of personality which surrounds him, was born 67 years ago. Mangyongdae was the family home of his late father, the founder of North Korea, Kim Il Sung. . . .

The South Korean news agency Yonhap quoted sources in Beijing saying that Jong Un has registered as a candidate in elections on March 8 for North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly – the precursor to his public emergence as his father’s successor.

“Kim Jong Un will be formally nominated as successor after the elections,” one source told the news agency. “He is expected to take on key party and military posts in April.”

As Hillary noted in the NYT yesterday, even under the best of circumstances, any succession in a nuclear dictatorship is not a good thing:

“If there is a succession, even if it’s a peaceful succession,” she said, “that creates more uncertainty, and it may also encourage behaviors that are even more provocative, as a way to consolidate power within the society.”

In that story, my friend Steve Clemons suggests that Hillary has committed a major faux pas.  I disagree — diplomats should be circumspect, but there are times when not stating the obvious would be ridiculous.

The Times UK story goes on to note that the Dear Leader has been grooming Kim Jong Un as his successor for some time.  In the process, he’s been spoiled rotten:

All the sons were educated at an exclusive private boarding school in Switzerland. According to Kenji Fujimoto, a Japanese who worked as personal sushi chef to Kim Jong Il and knew both the young “princes” well, it was obvious from his childhood that Jong Un would eventually take over from his father. “The older brother, Jong Chul, had the warm heart of a girl,” he told The Times last night. “The younger prince, Jong Un, was a boy of inner strength.”

As teenagers, the boys played basketball and, even after casual games among friends, Jong Un would coach his teammates and analyse the successes and failures of their matches. “The first time I met him he was 7 years old, and he looked at me as if I was an evil Japanese who had done terrible things to Koreans in the war,” said Mr Fujimoto. “I was impressed that even as a young boy he tried to analyse people he met.”

As a boy, Jong Un drove a Mercedes Benz with specially adapted pedals and seat around the grounds of Kim Jong Il’s home.

No jokes here, folks.  The notion that a 25-year-old — and one who, from an early age was taught how to be a psychopathic megalomaniac — now may rule over a nuclear state is a terrifying thought.  Let’s hope that he isn’t into rocketry as a hobby.

When I was 25, I had no business running a record store, much less a country.  I doubt there are more than a dozen people in the world who at that age have the ability to lead something that large — and most of them weren’t raised to think that a cult of personality is merely standard operating procedure.

I never thought I’d say this, but — barring a coup — we all should pray for Kim Jong Il’s full recovery.

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