North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may not be seen, but he has been hard at work 365 days a year — without taking time off for holidays, birthdays and even sleep, according to state media.
“From the outset, the revolutionary calendar of our leader … does not have any day offs, holidays or birthdays,” a special article in the Hermit Kingdom’s daily Rodong Sinmun reported, according to the South Korea-based NK News.
The official paper of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea dedicated the entire front page to extolling the past eight years of the reclusive Kim’s leadership.
“Our party, in drafting and implementing of all policies, have prioritized the people’s benefit … and have cast the iron mace mercilessly to, whomever that is, those who infringe on the people’s benefit with abusing power, bureaucratism, and corruption,” the piece said.
The article, which was published Saturday, comes as Kim has once again not been seen for more than two weeks after his prior disappearing act, which sparked rampant speculation and rumors about his health.
After a three-week absence, Kim showed up on May 1 for a ribbon-cutting event to open a new fertilizer factory.
However, the speculation over his health — a closely guarded secret in the rogue regime — has continued, including that Kim has used a body double.
Rodong emphasized that “Supreme Leader comrade Kim Jong Un is … continuing a no-sleep, no-rest, high-intensity schedule … at this moment.”
The article focused on Kim’s “people-first” policies, adding that he did not hesitate to punish those who abused their positions — likely referring to his order to the military to weed out corruption in its ranks.
The outlet also lauded Kim’s love for the people and hailed his leadership despite the “unprecedented hardships” and “severe conditions” that the country has been going through, including “pressure” by foreign powers.
The “hostile powers put an unheard-of high-intensity pressure” on Pyongyang, Rodong said, claiming that such pressure intensified when Kim succeeded his late father, Kim Jong Il.
“The imperialists saw the shifting of our revolutionary generation as … a golden opportunity to realize the half-a-century old anti-DPRK strategy to crush us to death and mobilized all methods,” the article said, criticizing the “pressure” against the North.
Kim Jong Un attends the opening of a fertilizer plant.ReutersUnder Kim’s rule, the military has been strengthened to the point the country is considered a “global military power,” the article said, adding how it is not too far in the future that the economic sector will enjoy world-class success.
One expert said that what was notable about the piece was not its content but the context — how it appears it was originally aimed at the April anniversary of Kim’s eight-year rule, not May.
“I assume it came out later than one would otherwise expect because the authorities needed to focus attention elsewhere last month,” Christopher Green, a lecturer at Leiden University, told NK News.
“That could be either because they had something else to say, or because they were not in a position to execute the propaganda strategy — public appearances by the Leader and such — that would ordinarily accompany a relatively important anniversary,” he said.
Green pointed to 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.
“Whatever it was that stopped Kim from appearing on that date may well have led to this piece appearing a month after the fact,” he told the outlet.




