Kim Jong Un Boosts Leadership Credentials With New Video

Today is Kim Jong Un’s birthday, and to celebrate, North Korea’s state television broadcast a new documentary about “The Great Successor” highlighting his experience at leading North Korea’s $1.2 million.

The Telegraph reports that the video aims to show that Kim Jong Un was in charge of the military long before his father, Kim Jong Il, died of a heart attack last month.

The video says (as translated by ABC):

“The respected comrade Kim Jong-un is perfectly versed in all military strategies and … displays excellent military leadership.”

Before Kim Jong-Il’s death, Kim Jong-un’s military experience was unknown. But according to the documentary, Jong-un wrote his first thesis on military strategy at the age of 16.

The release of the new documentary coincides with Jong-un’s birthday. Although the video doesn’t mention to momentous occasion, North Korea tends to celebrate its leader’s birthdays as a national holiday in order to deify them. ABC reports that Kim Jong Un’s birthday passed relatively quietly in North Korea today. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said that the reason may be that calendar’s were released before he took leadership and was not marked on the 2012 schedule.

The film, entitled Succeeding great work of military-first revolution, show’s Kim Jong-un as he rides a horse, inspects a tank, and even visits an amusement park.

Here’s a video report about Kim Jong-Un’s new documentary.