Click to play videoNew Delhi: If North Korean leader Kim Jong II were to tell his countrymen that the world is flat they would believe it without doubt.
Dissent and doubt are not permitted in North Korea, the world’s most cloistered society.
Kim Jong II is regarded as one of the most enigmatic state heads of what the West believes is “the most secretive nation of the world”.
He has faced international isolation, sanctions and scorn for his pursuit of nuclear weapons.
But none of it deterred the man, known simply to his subjects as "Dear Leader", from going ahead on Monday with what Pyongyang said was its first nuclear test.
Kim Jong-il was born February 16, 1941 and has been the leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea since 1994.
He is also the Chairman of the National Defense Commission of North Korea, Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army, and General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea.
A cult?
That his birth was heralded by a new star and that he has an infamous history of sexual excesses, drunkenness and a mercurial temperament are just some of the many quirky tales surrounding the reclusive leader.
While dissidents use adjectives like compulsive playboy, a hypochondriac and an eccentric manipulator to describe him, many believe that his cherubic exterior hides a dangerously cunning mind.
Essentially a recluse, the communist world's first dynastic leader, Kim is the unchallenged head of the state whose economy has fallen deeper into poverty during his nine years in power.
Analysts say the latest announcement of a test will bolster him in the eyes of his 1.2 million strong army, mostly based near the border with South Korea and which regularly celebrates his rule with elaborate parades and displays of weaponry.
Dangerous games
His image outside the country is of a chubby man with a bouffant hair-do, drab jumpsuits and platform shoes who has starved his people, let the country's industry stagnate and, like his father, constructed a cult of personality around him.
"North Koreans are compelled to believe the earth is flat if their leader says so," said Park Young-ho, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification.
Quirky Kim | |
| Kim Jong-il's official biography also holds that his birth at Mount Paektu was foretold by a swallow, and that his birth was heralded by the appearance of a double rainbow over the mountain and a new star in the heavens. |
 | It is believed that his official birth year was adjusted so he would be seen to be 50 at the time of his father's eightieth birthday. |
| Kim Jong Il uses at least two look- alikes at some public events for his safety, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. They are so similar in appearance to the reclusive leader that even North Korean officials accompanying them don't know they are doubles. |
| Kim, who commands a strong cult of personality and is revered as a demigod in his totalitarian state, also sends the doubles when his health is bad and he doesn't want to look weak in front of his people. |
| The look-alikes had plastic surgery and were trained to speak and behave like Kim. They are of the same age, same height and with the same bouffant hairstyle and pot belly as Kim, the officials were quoted as saying. |
| In 1992, Kim Jong-il's voice was broadcast for the first and only time. During a military parade, he approached the microphone and said "Glory to the heroic soldiers of the People's Army!" |
| His eldest son, Kim Jong-nam, was earlier believed to be the designated heir, but he was arrested at the Tokyo International Airport in 2001 while traveling on a forged passport, trying to sneak into Tokyo Disneyland. |
| Kim is said to be a film fan, and reportedly avidly follows Friday The 13th series and Rambo among others. |
| In 1978, reportedly on the orders of Kim, South Korean film director Shin Sang-ok and his actress wife Choe Eun-hui were kidnapped in order to build a North Korean film industry. |
| He has a profound fear of flying, and has always traveled by private armoured train for state visits to Russia and China. |
| He is said to wear platform shoes and favour a bouffant hairstyle in order to appear taller than his 5 feet 3 inches. |
Long groomed by his father, state founder Kim Il-sung, he gradually tightened his hold on power after the elder Kim died of a heart attack in 1994 in the midst of an earlier crisis over North Korea's nuclear programme.
But the cherubic exterior masks a dangerous strategist too.
Kim has been playing a cagey, defiant and sometimes deadly game with the international community for years.
As the head of North Korea's special forces for much of the 70s and 80s, he has been linked by defectors to international terrorist activities, including the 1986 bombing of a Korean Airlines jet in which 115 people died.
He emerged onto the world stage in 2000, hosting an unprecedented summit with then South Korean president Kim Dae-Jung, meant to eventually end the more than 50-year divide of the Korean peninsula.
"His relation with the military is very strong because he has been focused on it since the start," said Michael Breen, Seoul-based consultant and author of "Kim Jong-il: North Korea's Dear Leader".
The younger Kim declined to assume the title of president, instead designating his father "eternal president" and opting to rule as chairman of the National Defence Commission and head of the ruling party.
Axis of Evil?
One of the world's most closed societies finally looked ready to open up. But in just two years, tensions rose again after Washington said Pyongyang was pursuing a nuclear arms programme in violation of a 1994 agreement designed to freeze its atomic ambitions.
Now, the Bush administration says Kim leads an outpost of tyranny and labels his country part of an "axis of evil". But in North Korea's official media Kim is one of the greatest leaders in history.
He is, it is said, a man who pilots jet fighters - even though he always travels by land for his infrequent trips abroad. He has also penned operas, produced movies and accomplished a feat unmatched in the annals of professional golf, shooting 11 holes-in-one on the first round he ever played.
On Sunday, marking his ninth anniversary at the helm of the Stalinist North, the official media described him as a man of outstanding wisdom and extraordinary political ability. "The world admires the absolute power and greatness of our dear leader," the communist party mouthpiece Rodong Sinmun said in a commentary.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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