When North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with the ruling Workers’ Party last week, he had some good news. He reported that the country, which has long struggled with hunger, expected a “pretty good” harvest this year and had recently signed a mutual defense treaty with Russia.
The bigger news, though, may have been what officials wore to the meeting in the capital, Pyongyang: a breast pin emblazoned with Kim Jong Un’s face, according to photos released by state media.
The Kim family, which has led North Korea since its founding in 1948, has long indoctrinated North Koreans to worship the Kim family like 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 must wear a pin or dual-image badge on their chest with the portraits of Kim Jong-un and Kim Jong-un.
By launching pins bearing his own image, Kim Jong Un is raising his idolatry and the cult of personality that surrounds him to levels hitherto reserved only for his grandfather, who ruled from 1948 until his death in 1994, and his father . He succeeded him and ruled until 2011, according to South Korean officials and analysts. Its launch means North Koreans now have a choice of three brooches and images to wear.
If tradition is followed, the image of the newest leader – now Kim Jong-un – will end up being the most common choice.
“This is part of Kim Jong-un’s efforts to establish himself as an independent leader,” Kim Yi-myo, deputy spokesman for the South Korean government’s Unification Ministry, said on Monday.
North Korea introduced the Kim Il-sung emblem in 1970 after its founder, Kim Il-sung, eliminated all domestic rivals and established unified rule. Kim Il Sung was 58 years old at the time. Kim Jong Il’s badge was introduced in 1992, when he was 50 years old.
Since then, the lapel badge has become the most prominent feature of the cult of personality. But they began to lose their appeal to ordinary North Koreans, especially after a famine in the 1990s that killed millions. Once considered sacred by North Koreans, they were smuggled into China and sold as cheap tourist souvenirs near the North Korean border. North Korean defectors call it a “badge of slavery.”
Ms. Kim of the Unification Ministry linked the launch of Mr. Kim’s new emblem to Mr. Kim’s efforts to unite the country under his leadership as the country faces economic difficulties and threats from outside influence, including K-pop entertainment, from rival South Korea.
After taking power after his father’s death in 2011, Kim Jong Un moved quickly to establish a totalitarian leadership through what South Korean officials and analysts call a “reign of terror.” Anyone seen as a challenge to his authority disappeared or was executed or assassinated.
But he has been trying to fulfill his family’s promise to North Korea’s long-suffering people: to build a “strong and prosperous country” where people no longer tighten their belts because of food shortages or fear of 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 development of nuclear weapons. His credibility among the people depended largely on his carefully crafted image as a leader who ultimately turned North Korea into a nuclear-armed 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 continental United States. On Monday, the last day of the Workers’ Party conference, the country said it had tested a new ballistic missile capable of carrying a “very large warhead”.
Despite these military achievements, Kim Jong Un’s grip on power still relies on reviving a cult of personality and keeping North Koreans away from outside news.
Kim Jong Un is trying to reshape his family’s rule and cast himself as a young, dynamic, even transformative leader. He emphasizes his family lineage by dressing like his grandfather, but also seems to distance himself from his ancestors, working to escape their long shadow and show that he is a worthy leader in his own right.
This year he abandoned his grandfather’s long-term goal of unifying South Korea and called Seoul an enemy that must be conquered through nuclear war if necessary. North Korea does not attach as much importance to Kim Il Sung’s April 15th birthday this year as before. State propagandists began praising Kim Jong-un as they had eulogized his father and grandfather in the past, calling him the “sun” of the Korean people and the “father” of all Koreans, and began distributing his portrait to hang in government buildings and residences.
Analysts say the distribution of the badges reflects Kim Jong Un’s growing confidence in his authoritarian rule.
“This officially shows that he is now in the same echelon as his ancestors Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il,” said Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of Korean Studies in Seoul.
