23.05.12
REPORTING FROM SEOUL AND BEIJING -- North Korea's newly minted superior faces a steep political learning curve: His doting governor, Kim Jong Il, is now officially gone, memorialized this week in a state cremation at which hundreds of thousands of mourners flailed in sadness along the snowy streets of Pyongyang.
Soundlessly standing at the head of the solemn procession, the youthful Kim Jong Un, puerile-looking with his close-cropped haircut and chubby cheeks, must now set upon the censure of leading an impoverished and vilified regime that in recent years has failed to adequately supported by its own people.
The 28-year-old Swiss-educated successor has the perfect guidance of two players from his father's inner circle: his uncle, Jang Inexpensively Taek, and his wife, Kim Kyong-hui –- the late dictator's younger sister.
PHOTOS: Kim Jong Il through the years
Yet experts prognosticate that many perhaps-competing interests will be whispering into the ear of the young ruler in the coming months as age leaders ponder whether he will follow his father's take-no-prisoners adroitness or set his own course.
Source: Los Angeles Times