Where in the World is North Korea’s Kim Jung Un?

Visions of Team America: World Police and unlikely U.S. basketball star-turned buddy, Dennis Rodman and the North Korea’s famine stricken who are in greater need of air-dropped hoagies than another missile test come to mind whenever the country’s leader Kim Jong Un is mentioned. So does the unnecessary and heartless bombing of Yeoungpeong Island controlled by South Korea in November of 2010 for that matter.

Online Rumor Mill Churns 24×7

So when the rumor mill is churning 24×7 that Un is MIA, media can’t help but continue to ask exactly where is the chubby young dictator who was last seen wobbling like the best vintage Hasbro Playskool Weeble ever? With so many rumors swirling about whether Un has gout, diabetes, was replaced via military coup, got executed, or died under his own crushing weight gain (unlikely), or the latest—the possibility that his 26 year old sister, Kim Yo Jung, replaced  him. Westerners surprisingly miss seeing this chubby skitzo-cult leader who can’t stay out of the spotlight for any length of time. Even the country’s defense minister says Kim Jung Un is not in the capital city. One analyst reports he could be north of Pyongyang in one of three compounds used by the ruling elite. Others speculate Un is holding up at a locale he spent significant time at last year.

Collective Eyebrows Raise

Many wonder what North Korea would be like under a completely different ruler. Kim Yo Jung is the youngest of seven siblings their (she and Un’s) father Kim Jong II had with one of four different women. Reports that Kim Yo Jung gets regular intelligence briefings and handles many of the duties for her brother (and before that their dad) continue to surface. Her age has many concerned that something is gravely wrong with Un and whether she has what it takes to run country who Un has vowed nuclear Armageddon towards the West. Why is her name only surfacing now? Previously, she has mainly been seen behind Kim Jong Un and her rising popularity has only recently been noted as she’s been seen more frequently at parties and other highly-visible functions where her political stature is on now on the world’s radar. So is Kim Yo Jung holding North Korea’s reigns now? Maybe. Maybe not. Only time will tell.

While the World Waits for Un…          

More rumors are cycling online now that Kim Jung Un is now a defunct leader, as he was noticeably MIA from the 69th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers’ Party on October 10. But one thing is clear. Whomever Un’s successor is next (if someone has already snagged the reigns), she (or he) won’t be half as colorful as Rodman’s buddy, aka chubby cult leader, Kim Jong Un.