North Korean leader Kim Jong-un brought some good news last week when he met with the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea. The country, which has long struggled with its nuclear program, hungerhe reported that the harvest is expected to be “quite good” this year and that Mutual Defense Treaty With Russia.
The bigger news, though, may have been what officials wore during the meeting in the capital, Pyongyang: The chest pin has a portrait of Kim Jong-un. According to photos released by state media.
Kim Jong-un’s family has led North Korea since its founding in 1948 and has long indoctrinated the people to regard the Kim family as gods. Portraits of Kim Jong-un’s grandfather, Kim Il-sung, and his father, Kim Jong-il, hang on the walls of every home and office building. Every North Korean is required to wear a Brooch with the portrait of one of the elders, Kim Jong-un and Kim Jong-il or Dual Image Badge In their chest.
By launching his own brooch, Kim Jong-un has taken his admiration and cult of personality to a new level, according to South Korean officials and analysts, a status that until now had only been enjoyed by his grandfather, who ruled North Korea from 1948 until his death in 1994, and his father, who inherited the regime until his death in 2011. That means North Koreans now have three brooches and images to choose from.
If tradition is followed, the image of the latest leader – now Kim Jong-un – will eventually become the most common choice.
“This is part of Kim Jong Un’s efforts to establish himself as an independent leader,” Kim In-ae, deputy spokesperson for the South Korean government’s Unification Ministry, said on Monday.
North Korea introduced the Kim Il-sung emblem in 1970, when the country’s founding father purged all rivals and established unitary rule. He was 58. Kim Jong-il’s emblem was introduced in 1992, when he was 50. By then, he had consolidated his position as heir apparent and was running the country alongside his ailing father.
Since then, lapel badges have become the most prominent feature of the cult of personality. Begins to lose its appeal The items have become increasingly common among ordinary North Koreans, especially after a famine in the 1990s that killed millions. Once considered sacred by North Koreans, they have since been smuggled into China and sold as cheap tourist souvenirs near the North Korean border. North Korean defectors call them “slave badges.”
Ms. Kim of the Unification Ministry believes that the launch of the new Kim Jong-un badge is related to Kim Jong-un’s efforts to unite the people of the country around his leadership. Economic difficulties and Perceived threat of external influenceincluding K-pop entertainment from its rival South Korea.
Kim Jong-un came to power in 2011 after his father’s death and has been instrumental in establishing a strong South Korean government through what South Korean officials and analysts call ” “Reign of Terror”. Anyone seen as challenging his authority would disappear or be implement or Assassination.
But he has been working to fulfill his family’s promise to the long-suffering North Korean people: to build a “strong and prosperous country” where people no longer have to tighten their belts because of food shortages or worry about a U.S. invasion.
Kim Jong-un has struggled economically and has been unable to convince Washington to lift sanctions imposed on North Korea over its nuclear weapons development. Much depends on his carefully crafted image. As a leader who ultimately turned North Korea into a nuclear weapons state.
Under Kim Jong Un, North Korea has conducted four underground nuclear tests and developed a range of missiles, including long-range rockets capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. On Monday, the final day of a Workers’ Party meeting, the country said it had conducted a nuclear test. New ballistic missile Capable of carrying “super-large warheads”.
Despite these military achievements, Kim Jong-un’s hold on power depends on reviving his cult of personality and preventing North Koreans from News from the outside world.
Kim Jong-un has tried to reshape family rule and portray himself as a young, energetic and even revolutionary leader. He has emphasized his family lineage by imitating his grandfather’s dress, but at the same time he seems to distance himself from his forefathers, trying to break away from their long shadow and show that he is a respectable leader.
This year he gave up A long-term goalNorth Korea opposes reunification with South Korea, calling Seoul an enemy that must be conquered by nuclear war if necessary. This year, North Korea did not promote Kim Il Sung’s birthday, April 15, as vigorously as in the past. State propagandists began praising Kim Il Sung as they had praised his father and grandfather in the past, calling him the “sun” of the Korean people and the “father” of all North Koreans, and began distributing his portraits to hang in government buildings and homes.
Analysts said the distribution of the lapel pins reflected Kim Jong Un’s growing confidence in his one-man dictatorship.
“This officially shows that he is now in the same league as his predecessors, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il,” said Yang Moo-jin, president of Seoul’s Chosun University.
