Kim Jong-chul (Korean: 김정철; born 25 September 1978), sometimes spelled Kim Jong Chol,[1] is a son of former North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Il. His younger brother is currently the North Korean Supreme Leader, Kim Jong Un. His older half-brother Kim Jong-nam was assassinated in February 2017.
In 2007, Jong-chul was appointed deputy chief of a leadership division of the Workers' Party of Korea. However, on 15 January 2009, the South Korean Yonhap News Agency reported that Kim Jong Il appointed his youngest son, Jong-un, to be his successor, passing over Jong-nam and Jong-chul. These reports were supported in April 2009 when Kim Jong Un assumed a low-level position within the ruling Workers' Party since Kim Jong Il was groomed by his own father, Kim Il Sung, in a similar way before becoming North Korean leader in 1994.[2]
Kim Jong-chul was born in 1981. He is the son of Kim Jong Il and companion Ko Yong-hui, who died in 2004. He was educated at the International School of Berne with younger brother Kim Jong Un.[3]
In February 2003, moves began to raise the profile of Kim Jong-chul. The Korean People's Army began a propaganda campaign using the slogan "The Respected Mother is the Most Faithful and Loyal Subject to the Dear Leader Comrade Supreme Commander". Since the "Respected Mother" was described as "[devoting] herself to the personal safety of the comrade supreme commander", and "[assisting] the comrade supreme commander nearest to his body", Western analysts assume that the "Respected Mother" was Ko Yong-hui, mother of Kim Jong-chul and Kim Jong Un.[4] A similar campaign was launched in praise of Kim Jong Il's mother (Kim Jong-suk) during the later years of Kim Il Sung's life.[4] This suggested that Kim Jong-chul, despite his youth, had emerged with Army backing to be a serious contender to succeed his father.
However, Kenji Fujimoto, Kim Jong Il's personal sushi chef, wrote in his memoir, I Was Kim Jong-il's Cook, that Kim Jong Il thought Jong-chul was "no good because he is like a little girl". Fujimoto believed Kim Jong Il favoured his youngest son, Kim Jong Un.[5]
On 1 June 2009, it was reported that Kim Jong-chul had been passed over as his younger brother, Kim Jong Un, was to succeed his father as the head of the Workers' Party of Korea and de facto head of state of North Korea.[6]