Monday, September 7, 1998 Published at 13:02 GMT 14:02 UK
Profile: Kim Jong-il
Following in the footsteps of his father Kim Il-sung
By Asia analyst Angie Knox
Outside North Korea, little was known about Kim Jong-il when he was thrust into the limelight on the death of his father.
With a reputation as a vain playboy, many analysts predicted the imminent collapse of the communist regime. But four years on, the short bespectacled younger Kim is still in charge -- although he remains very much a mystery.
He has rarely appeared or spoken in public, and he has not travelled outside North Korea since the 1980s.
New cult emerging
On the intellectual front, he's credited with having extended Kim Il-sung's personal philosophy of Juche, or self-reliance, which has been the guiding light for North Korea's development.
His other feats include writing six operas in two years, and personally designing the huge Juche tower in Pyongyang.
But according to official North Korean accounts, he was born in a log cabin at his father's guerilla base on North Korea's highest mountain, Mt Paektu, in February 1942.
The event was reportedly marked by a double rainbow, and a bright star in the sky.
The younger Kim graduated from Kim Il-sung University in 1964, and after a period of grooming for leadership, he was officially designated successor to his father in 1980.
Analysts believe he was given the position to counter potential resistance to his eventual succession. After the death of Kim Il-sung in 1994, it was three years before he took over the leadership of the ruling Korean Workers' Party.
What North Koreans can't read
South Korean accounts portray Kim as a vain and capricious playboy, with permed hair and lifts in his shoes, and a penchant for foreign liquor.
They have also consistently reported rumours of young women being kidnapped in Japan and elsewhere to be his companions in a string of luxury villas.
Some analysts believe the younger Kim was responsible for developing North Korea's suspected nuclear weapons programme.
But the secrecy surrounding Kim Jong-il and the difficulty of getting accurate information about North Korea means that it's virtually impossible to assess the true extent of Kim Jong-il's influence.