North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may not be seen, but he has worked hard 365 days a year – without taking time off for holidays, birthdays and even sleeping, according to state media.
“From the beginning, our leader’s revolutionary calendar … had no holidays, holidays or birthdays,” a special article in the Royal Hermit Rodong Sinmun daily reported, according to NK News based in South Korea.
The official paper of the Korea Labor Party Central Committee dedicated the entire front page to praise the last eight years of Kim’s closed leadership.
“Our party, in compiling and implementing all policies, has prioritized the benefits of the people … and has thrown a merciless hammer at anyone, those who violate the people’s benefits by abusing power, bureaucratism, and corruption,” the piece said.
The article, published Saturday, was published when Kim was once again invisible for more than two weeks after his disappearance, which sparked rampant speculation and rumors about his health.
After three weeks of absence, Kim appeared on May 1 for a ribbon-cutting event to open a new fertilizer factory.
However, speculation about his health – a closely guarded secret in the rogue regime – continues, including that Kim has used a double body.
Rodong stressed that “Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un’s friend is … continuing his schedule without sleep, without rest, high intensity … at the moment.”
The article focuses on Kim’s “people-first” policy, adding that he does not hesitate to punish those who abuse their positions – possibly referring to his orders to the military to eradicate corruption in his ranks.
The outlet also praised Kim’s love for the people and praised his leadership despite the “unprecedented difficulties” and “severe conditions” that the country has been through, including “pressure” by foreign powers.
“Hostile forces place unprecedented high-intensity pressure” on Pyongyang, Rodong said, claiming that the pressure was rising when Kim replaced his late father Kim Jong Il.
“The imperialists see the shift of our revolutionary generation as … a golden opportunity to realize a half-century anti-DPRK strategy to crush us to death and mobilize all methods,” the article said, criticizing “pressure” on the North.
Kim Jong Un attended the completion of the fertilizer factory.Reuters
Under Kim’s rule, the military has been strengthened until the country is considered a “global military force,” the article said, adding how not too far in the future that the economic sector would enjoy world-class success.
One expert said that what was important about the work was not the content but the context – how it looked originally aimed at the April commemoration of Kim’s eight-year government, not May.
“I consider it coming out later than expected because the authorities need to focus elsewhere elsewhere last month,” Christopher Green, a lecturer at Leiden University, told NK News.
“That could be because they have something to say, or because they are not in a position to carry out propaganda strategies – public appearances by Leaders and such – which will usually accompany relatively important warnings,” he said.
Green shows how Kim did not appear in public on April 15 for one of North Korea’s biggest holidays in commemoration of Kim Il Sung’s birthday.
