Hold on, who just won Time Person of the Year?

Everyone remembers Kim Jong Il, particularly for his portrayal in Team America, but his son Kim Jong Un is having a bumper year this year.

By Adrian Collins

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So is Kim Jong-un Time's Person of the Year? I thought that was Enda?!

Well actually it's neither of them, Enda just made the cover a while back. Kim Jong-un isn't either, he only won the reader's poll, and with more than a helping hand from 4chan users by the looks of it. The actual person of the year will be decided later by an editorial panel for Time, and more than likely that won't be Kim Jong-un.

That's not guaranteed though, since Time say they do choose people who have influenced the news “for better or worse” on their website. That explains why Gangnam Style singer Psy made the list then.

Who is this lad?

He's the Supreme Leader of North Korea, a nice fancy title for the guy who succeeded his father Kim Jong-il after he passed away just over a year ago.  At 28 or 29 (no one seems sure what year he was born), he's the youngest head of state in the world. His grandfather, Kim Il-sung, also ruled the country from its foundation in 1948. His interests include basketball, long walks on the beach, and communism.

Who did he beat to the coveted title?

There was quite a collection of people to fend off, presenting some fairly stiff competition. The list included recognisable characters like Hillary Clinton for her work as Secretary of State, Felix Baumgartner for making the highest skydive ever and the Mars Rover, the $2.5 billion SUV on the surface of Mars.

Even with all these great names on show, readers chose the Supreme Leader of North Korea, possibly for his recent “science experiments”, which is what the government claim they were up to when they launched a rocket a few days ago.

We never got to do anything fun like that in our science classes, it was all Bunsen burners and write-ups.