Do we like them?

Do we like Kim Jong Un?

Our score: 0 out of 10. He leads a state the UN says executes and surveils its people, and he keeps pledging more nuclear weapons, with no verified charity to set against it.

Kim leads North Korea and was re-elected head of the ruling Workers' Party at its congress in February 2026. At the closing events he said the party would increase the number of nuclear weapons, and he called South Korea the 'most hostile enemy', according to state media reporting carried by Reuters.

The big scandal isn't a single event, it's the system. A 2014 UN inquiry concluded North Korean authorities had committed crimes against humanity, including torture and starvation. A UN rights office report in September 2025 said executions have increased, including for sharing foreign TV dramas, and described mass surveillance that touches every part of life. North Korea had not commented on that report when it was published.

On the company he keeps, North Korea confirmed in April 2025 that it sent troops to fight alongside Russia in Kursk, on Kim's orders, and he called the soldiers 'heroes' in the state media statement. In September 2026 he promised Putin 'invariable support'. That's backing for a war that has killed civilians, in his own words.

The recent stuff is more of the same. At the February congress he outlined stronger ICBMs, AI-enabled attack systems and drones, and he said he'd talk to the US if it dropped its 'policy of confrontation'. He also rejected dialogue with Seoul and said its 'complete collapse cannot be ruled out'.

Is there any good? State media say Kim attended the opening of a new county hospital in November 2025 as part of a regional development drive, and that's about all there is. That's state-reported, can't be independently checked from here, and sits beside a UN-documented pattern of repression. We found no verified charity or kindness to set against it.

Where it lands: the UN has urged that North Korea's situation be referred to the International Criminal Court, and Kim has shown no sign of changing course. Whatever he is to his own country, this isn't someone this page could back.