That has not deterred Kim from indulging his eccentric tastes. He allegedly imports £350,000 of cognac a year and eats lobster, caviar and sushi. He spent millions on a fleet of Mercedes Benz luxury cars and spends his time watching Hollywood movies such as Rambo or Friday the 13th - Picture: REUTERS/KCNA
No one inside North Korea would ever hear of this excess. Kim has banned mobile phones, newspapers, the internet and books. In 2004, he brought in a new criminal law, penalising anyone who tried to bring in outside music. Talking about his successor is banned too - Picture: REUTERS/KCNA
However, Kim is not technically in charge. His father, Kim Il Sung, who died suddenly of a heart attack in 1994,
was proclaimed "Eternal President" and never replaced -Picture: AP
Kim junior, who took up the post of General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and head of the National Defence Commission,
simply expresses his deceased father's will -Picture: AP
His ability to hold North Korea together, despite huge economic problems and public discontent,
is a tribute both to his skill as a communicator and to his father's doctrine of Juche, or self-reliance -Picture: GETTY
The younger Kim wanted to be a movie director and famously kidnapped a South Korean film director and movie star
to build the North Korean film industry. - Picture: WORLD PICTURE NEWS
Even in 2006 he got involved in make a movie about a girl whose parents are scientists.
This skill for storytelling and a certain visual flair has served him well. - Picture: REUTERS/KCNA
He regularly spends North Korea's budget on terrorism, rockets and nuclear development programmes when his people desperately need food. -
Picture: REUTERS/KOREAN NEWS SERVICE
He is often pictured surveying his troops or visiting factories and farms, usually wearing one his trademark looks: a beige jacket... - Picture: EPA/KCNA
His carefully stage-managed, enigmatic, public appearances have led to theories that he may have died years ago, but he has been pictured with world leaders and diplomats, including Vladimir Putin... - Picture: REUTERS/ITAR-TASS/KREMLIN PRESS SERVICE
His eldest son, 37-year-old Kim Jong-nam, might have taken over from him, but has never been able to recover from being caught in 2001 trying to sneak into Disneyland in Tokyo. Although there were rumours of a reconciliation, he has also been spotted in Macau - Picture: REUTERS/JNN
So whatever his state of health might actually be, the legend of Kim will continue to be spun in order to keep that "Mandate of Heaven"
Picture: AP/KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY/KOREA NEWS SERVICE
...He was unanimously re-elected and confirmed as leader by the country's rubber-stamp parliament which
celebrated his "immortal exploits" and "dynamic leadership" - Picture: AFP/GETTY
