According to media reports out of South Korea, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has named his son, Kim Jong-un, as his successor. Virtually nothing is known about the reclusive leader’s reportedly “favourite son.” No Western media has ever photographed Jong-un and he is speculated to have been born in either 1983 or 1984. He is Jong-il’s youngest son and was born to his third wife, Ko Yong-hui, similarly reported to have been his father’s favourite spouse. His two older brothers, half brother Kim Jong-nam and full brother Kim Jong-chol, were initially thought to be the preferred choices for the throne, but Jong-nam’s deportation from Japan in May 2001 and Jong-chol’s apparent “unmanliness” ostensibly ruled them both out. Like his father, Jong-un is reported to indulge in Western pop culture and suffer from health problems, like diabetes, related to his lack of exercise.