Today's Washington Post has a good investigative piece ("Who Will Succeed Kim Jong Il") on Kim Jong Un, the Dear Leader's third and youngest son and favorite to succeed the ill North Korean dictator and of which little is known. The reporting comes from Switzerland, where the boy spent about two years in boarding school, starting in 1998.  The central question the Post asks: did Kim's time there, "open his horizons beyond the narrow, xenophobic worldview of his homeland, ..." 

I remember a similar theme being raised as Bashar al-Asad came to power in Syria, taking over for his father after his death in 2000. An unknown as well, observers cited his having studied in London, his marriage to a London-born, English-educated Syrian woman and his love of computers as signs of his openness to the West.  Hopes dashed. 

An interesting part of the article is its reporting that last month, "Pyongyang began holding lectures for selected audiences to trumpet the 'greatness' of Kim Jong Un, the heir apparent. The 26-year old was celebrated as a 'genius of literary arts' and tireless patriot who 'is working without sleep or rest' to promote North Korea as a nuclear superpower,..."  What is it with dictators (and heir apparents) always working day and night?

It is telling that the North Korean state is indoctrinating its elite that nuclear weapons are critical. Being a nuclear superpower no doubt means having more than the few bombs it is thought to have and the means to deliver them (working hard on both accounts.)  U.S. policy since the Agreed Framework, in 1994, and through the limping Six Party Talks, have chased the hope that North Korea would agree to become nuclear weapons-free. In this pursuit, we have given the North Korean regime hundreds of millions of dollars of oil, ignored illicit activities, including counterfeiting dollars, and alienated our Japanese allies, among other costs. Today we have an ever more belligerent North Korea firing rockets and testing nuclear weapons. This reported propaganda and association of the young Kim with nuclear glory should raise the bar even higher for those advocating a repeat of assistance and concessions in return for nuclear "dismantlement."