For the first time, a badge bearing the face of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un alone has been spotted in a North Korean official meeting. This suggests an acceleration of Kim Jong Un’s independent idolization.
According to the Korean Central News Agency on the 30th, all the executives who attended the 10th plenary meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party on the 29th wore badges featuring Kim Jong Un’s face.
It was previously known that a badge featuring only the portrait of Kim Jong Un was produced in 2012 following the death of Kim Jong Il. However, this is the first time it has been observed being worn within North Korea. The badge, which must be worn by everyone from ordinary citizens to the highest ranks, symbolizes idolization of the Kim family. The Kim Il Sung badge was first produced and distributed in November 1970 when Kim Jong Il initiated it at the 5th Workers’ Party Conference. Although the Kim Jong Il badge began production at the Mansudae Art Studio on February 16, 1992, to commemorate his 50th birthday, only a few executives wore it due to Kim Jong Il’s opposition. It wasn’t until the 2000s that ordinary citizens began to wear it. After the death of Kim Jong Il, badges featuring both Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il were mass-distributed to the citizens.
The fact that the executives attending the plenary meeting, the highest level in North Korea, wore the Kim Jong Un badge is interpreted to focus on idolizing Kim Jong Un alone, as the regime has been established for over 10 years. Recently, in North Korea, the name of Kim Il Sung’s birthday was changed from “Day of the Sun” to “4·15.” Last month, North Korean media publicly released a photo showing Kim Jong Un’s portrait alongside those of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il on the outer wall of the school’s revolutionary museum, reporting his attendance at the completion ceremony of the Central Cadres Training School in the Geumsusan district of Pyongyang.
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