Less than a year after the death of his father Kim Jong Il, the chubby-cheeked North Korean heir Kim Jong Un appears to have consolidated his grip on power, ousting rivals at home and taking a firm line with both the U.S. and China. Some had hoped that the Switzerland-educated basketball fan, who is believed to be 29 or 30, would change his country’s tragic course by rebuilding the economy, fighting hunger or dialing back nuclear gamesmanship. He has not. Young Kim may one day prove a great reformer, but for the vast majority of his subjects, fear and repression reign.