Kim Jong Un is often seen grinning at a missile launch or in command of lengthy official meetings.
North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un has offered a glimpse of a different image this time and that is him being vulnerable?
At a weekend military parade where he showed off Pyongyang’s latest and largest intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Kim’s voice trembled momentarily as he spoke of “tears of gratitude” for his people’s efforts.
Kim jong Un being emotional?
He repeatedly and effusively thanked the citizens and military for their loyalty and for remaining healthy in the face of the global coronavirus epidemic.
He also insisted that the pandemic had not caused a single case in the North.
That has come at a price.
Kim closed his impoverished country’s borders in January to stop the virus, a move which analysts say has exacerbated the effects of international sanctions imposed over the North’s banned weapons programmes.
The camera cut away after Kim lauded volunteers who helped with disaster recovery efforts.
It then returned to show him laying down a handkerchief and putting his glasses back on.
As if he had been wiping his eyes.
At one point he went as far as apologizing for failing to meet expectations:
“Our people have placed trust, as high as sky and as deep as sea, on me, but I have failed to always live up to it satisfactorily,”
He said:
“I am really sorry for that,” he went on, according to the transcript by the official KCNA news agency.
It was his second apology of recent weeks.
According to Seoul’s presidential Blue House, the North’s ruling party told it in September that Kim was “very sorry” over the killing of a South Korean in Pyongyang’s waters.
And at the weekend parade, Kim also pledged to his citizens to do better.
He stated:
“I solemnly swear once again in this place that I will live up to the people’s trust without fail even if my body is torn and crushed to pieces,”
Genuine or just an Act?
Former United States government North Korea analyst Rachel Lee described the weekend’s parade as a “departure from the norm”.
His speech was “about the people” and “carefully calibrated to come across as genuine and relatable”, she stated.
“This is the latest example of North Korea’s changing propaganda strategy of conveying their message in a more entertaining and relatable manner.”
Andrei Lankov of Korea Risk Group said:
“First of all he is a politician, it means he is a good actor,”
But Kim “really would like his people to live well”, he added.
“Of course regime survival is far more important for him than survival of poor farmers in distant provinces.
“Missiles come first but he doesn’t forget about farmers.”
Former CIA analyst Soo Kim suggested that Kim could be “resorting to tears to compensate for his failure to deliver his basic promises to his people”.
“The expectation, of course, is that the population will buy into this act,” she said.
Whereas in the South, the media dismissed Kim’s performance as “crocodile tears”.