He returned to North Korea to serve as his father's factotum and, eventually his heir.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | Korea: New, Improved Dictator

All that seems to have been behind the chancellor's decision to praise away his factotum to higher things abroad.

ECONOMIST: Germany��s new man for the Balkans

His main villain is Syria, along with its ally Iran and their joint factotum, Hizbullah, whose embattled mindset and glorification of armed struggle inevitably sabotage efforts to construct a more durable polity.

ECONOMIST: Two writers unpick Lebanon��s complexities