First Official Photo of Korean Leader

North Korea has released a picture of Kim Jong-un, the heir apparent to dictator Kim Jong-il and whose face had never before been released to the rest of the world. It was a less-than-spectacular debut for the leader. In the grainy photograph, Jong-un looks awkward and uneasy amid a group of unsmiling Workers’ Party leaders. Many have been clamoring for an image of Jong-un as rumors circulate that a change in leadership is imminent. News agencies instead relied on a years-old photo of him taken at a boarding school in Europe. Jong-un’s short hair and chubby body are “definitely a change from the slender and nimble image seen during his teenager days in Switzerland,” South Korea’s Chosun-Ilbo newspaper said. Many worry how Jong-un, still in his late 20s, will be able to run the impoverished nation.