Kim son debut not exactly picture perfect

SEOUL, South Korea – For an official photographic introduction to the world, the picture of North Korean strongman-in-waiting Kim Jong Un released by the reclusive regime Thursday had anything but a marquee wow-factor.

This is no larger-than-life propaganda billboard heralding a dazzling visage of Kim Jong Il’s mysterious youngest son – rumored to soon succeed his ailing 68-year-old father.

Rather, it’s a grainy postage-stamp-small image of the jug-eared Kim Jong Un, perched awkwardly amid a group of grim-looking politicos at this week’s national convention of the ruling Workers’ Party.

For months, since rumors surfaced about an imminent political succession in Pyongyang, any up-to-date photograph of Kim Jong Un has been in hot demand.

Without one, news outlets worldwide instead published a years-old snapshot of Kim Jong Un, now believed to be in his late 20s, reportedly taken at a European boarding school.

Albeit fuzzy, the now-dated photo shows a smiling figure, his bright eyes showing a glint of intellect.

What a difference a few years can make. If you only get one chance to make a first impression, say regime critics in South Korea, the stone-faced young Kim appears to have stumbled.

“Kim Jong Un looks to have short hair, a big head and face, and chubby cheeks, just like his father Kim Jong Il. And he appears to have a large frame,” read a review in South Korea’s Chosun-Ilbo newspaper. “It’s definitely a change from the slender and nimble image seen during his teenager days in Switzerland.”

Another Seoul newspaper said he resembled his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, whose most distinguishing feature was a disfiguring cyst on his neck.

The Internet chatter is even less kind. Bloggers make fun of Kim Jong Un’s expression and bouffant hairstyle, reminiscent of the one favored by his father. Others joke about a would-be appetite.

“First impression, he looks like he’ll have a temper,” wrote one.

The front-page photograph was published in Thursday’s edition of the regime’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper and released by the state-run Korean Central News Agency. Kim Jong Un sits in the front row of the group photo, with a military officer between him and his infamous father.

South Korean government officials said the photo seems to be genuine.

“To confirm the picture’s validity is something that only the North Korean government can do,” said Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo. “But taking into account all the circumstances, it appears to be a picture of Kim Jong Un.”

For all of his young life, Kim Jong Un has been a public enigma, yet another of the secretive regime’s closely guarded secrets. Until recently, those North Koreans who even knew of his existence dared not mention his name.

Several would-be photographs of the youngest Kim have circulated, mostly obtained by the Japanese media. But before Thursday, the only confirmed image made public was an autographed photo that he gave in the 1990s to a sushi chef who was working for his father.

The chef, Kenji Fujimoto, later described the teenager in a memoir as a “chip off the old block, a spitting image of his father in terms of face, body shape and personality.”

That comparison may now be in question.

While Kim Jong Un this week was named to senior positions within the Workers’ Party, another sign that he may soon be North Korea’s next leader, many suggested that Thursday’s photograph further called that move into question.

“Looking at a young kid supposed to be 27 or 28 and appointing him a general is something ordinary citizens are finding hard to believe,” Kim Heung-gwang, a former university professor who heads the Seoul-based North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity group, said when told of the photo.

“Many sources who I spoke to are saying, ‘How is this kid going to lead a nation?’ ”