North Korea's Kim Jong Un Spends Most Of His Time Eating Cheese And Plotting Against The West

When Kim Jong Un, leader of North Korea, isn’t busy setting off missiles and laughing gleefully at cameras, his day-to-day life is more mundane than might otherwise be expected. 

North Korea is on everybody’s lips in 2017 after no less than 10 missile launches this year, some of which have skirted dangerously close to other countries — including one in March that landed just 186 miles off the coast of Japan.

Across Asia and the wider world, the concern is that Pyongyang will attach a nuclear warhead onto a long-distance missile — something North Korea claims to be able to do (even if it has not been independently verified). North Korea's inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) may even be able to reach Alaska, which has prompted the United States to step up pressure on its only ally, China, to either increase sanctions against Pyongyang or be sanctioned themselves.

The case of Otto Warmbier, the 22-year-old who was sent back from North Korea after a year in prison in a coma and subsequently died, has also radically increased tension between U.S. President Donald Trump and Pyongyang. Trump called Kim Jong Un “irrational” and in return, North Korea’s state media said Trump was a “psychopath”.
But to when he's not sparring with Donald Trump or supervising missile launches, how does Kim Jong Un spend his week?

At home with the family
Kim Jong Un usually appears in photographs surrounded by adoring children, the military, or his advisers, but rarely with his wife. Ri Sol-ju, 27, married Kim in 2009. Very little is known about her, and experts even debate the date of her birth. It’s not known if Ri Sol-ju is even her real name.

She is believed to have a PhD in science, while her family is from the political elite. There has been much speculation about Ri in foreign media. Some media speculated that she was actually singer Hyon Song-wol, famous for songs including “Excellent Horse-Like Lady”, and that the North Korean propaganda machine is simply trying to hide her past.

Aiden Foster Carter, an expert on North Korea and honorary senior research fellow in Sociology and Modern Korea at Leeds University explains that the secrecy around Kim Jong Un is because life in North Korea is on a “need to know basis.” “We’ve actually seen his [Kim Jong Un’s] wife more than Kim Jong Il (his father) because he had a very complicated love life,” explains Carter.

It’s believed Kim Jong Un has a daughter, born in 2012, called Kim Ju-rae, but little is known about the child. In 2013, NBA star Dennis Rodman returned from North Korea and  confirmed that Kim Jong Un has a baby girl, but if she exists she has not yet been formally introduced to the nation. North Korean tradition is for the children of leaders not to be introduced formally until they are adults, which was the case for both Kim Sung Il, and Kim Jong Un, explains Foster-Carter.

Where does he live?
Ryongsang Residence, known by locals as “Central Luxury Mansion” is in Pyongyang, and is huge, 4.6 sq miles in total. Facilities at the palace include an Olympic-sized swimming pool, banqueting facilities, a running track and athletics field, a shooting range, and stables. Satellite images show the house also has a giant waterslide. 

Kim has plenty of alternatives to the Ryongsang Palace, should he wish to leave the capital.
In 2013, Kim Jong Un chartered a $7 million 95-foot luxury yacht around the North Korean coastline during a tour, and Kim also calls a palatial complex on the coast near Wonsan his home. Rodman described Kim’s life in Wonsan as a “seven star party” like going to “visit Hawaii except [Kim] is the only one there.”

Foster Carter tells Newsweek that we just don’t know how many palaces he has or how long he spends in each. “You certainly couldn’t describe him as a workaholic like his father, so I imagine he spends more of his time relaxing rather than being in the centre of politics.”

What does he do during his week?
The state newspaper Rodong Sinmun has a special section detailing “Supreme Leader Activities,” which is meant to give the impression that Kim Jong Un is devoted to his people. His public life revolves around parades, factory visits, and discussing missile launches, according to the paper.

“Lavish photographs accompany the activities Kim is purported to be undertaking. Any we know a lot from defectors what these factory openings and other occasions are like. Bluntly, they’re scared when they find out the leader is coming to visit,” says Foster Carter.

“On a practical level production usually has to be stop for a few weeks to ensure that Kim’s visit is incredibly smooth. They also used to have this thing in North Korea called the Midas Touch. Anything Kim Il Sung touched had to be taken out of operation and put in a glass case.”

Factories of note he has visited over the last few months include a Dental Hygiene factory, a Giant Catfish factory, and a mushroom processing plant. Kim has also given advice at a Kimchi factory on how to increase its yield.

At the Dental Hygiene factory, Kim also imparted some important advice. Rodong Sinmun reported: “[He said] the factory makes a positive contribution to the promotion of the people's health, which is viewed seriously by him. He then gave an instruction to be regarded as a guideline in management of the factory.”

Kim also attends parades, many of which celebrate his family and the overthrow of imperialist aggressors (the United States).

What does he spend money on?
A UN report in 2014 found that Kim likes luxury living. He buys bottles of alcohol which cost the state $30 million, electronic goods costing $37 million and watches, which cost another $8.2 million.

In public, he dresses demurely in black or white overalls, smocks, or military attire, but in private, it’s high-end fashion all the way. The report estimates that the total state spending on luxury goods rose from $300 million a year under Kim Jong Il, to $645.8 million in 2012.

He eats his favourite food
In 2012, Kim Jong Un reportedly became so fat that he developed a cyst on his ankle, and required surgery to remove it.

And Kim’s love of cheese and wine is no secret. The U.K.’s Metro newspaper reported that Kim Jong Un had to retreat from public life after eating too much Emmental cheese, after a large shipment of it arrived from Switzerland.
“Kim Jong Un certainly seems to enjoy the good life,” says Foster Carter. - Newsweek