North Korea has displayed a portrait of Kim Jong Un in public for the first time, with analysts saying the move could herald the building of a personality
SEOUL – North Korea has displayed a portrait of Kim Jong Un in public for the first time, with analysts saying the move could herald the building of a personality cult around the young leader.
Idealized portraits of Kim’s grandfather and father — the North’s founder Kim Il Sung and his son and successor Kim Jong Il — are ubiquitous throughout the country.
They look down from the walls of every home, office and classroom, and the two men are displayed in every village, town and city — often in the form of mosaics, sometimes statues.
But while the current leader’s daily activities and photographs of him are the mainstay of state media — the only media authorized in the North — in wider society he is not portrayed in the same omnipresent way, and no statue of him is so far known to exist.
That could be beginning to change, analysts said, after the visit of Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel over the weekend.
When Kim met him at Pyongyang International Airport separate giant portraits of the two men hung on the outside of the building, pictures showed.
Smiling broadly and with his face gleaming, Kim wore half-framed glasses and a black Western-style suit with a spotted tie.
