According to analysts, a unusual mention in North Korean state media of leader Kim Jong Un’s ‘weight-loss’ could be intended to further a ‘propaganda’ amid food shortages.
On Friday, the tightly controlled state media quoted an unidentified resident of Pyongyang as saying that everyone in North Korea was heartbroken after seeing images of Kim looking “emaciated”.
In recent state media images Kim appeared to have lost weight, as the analysts noted the strap on his fancy watch was tighter, and his face thinner than before. Some observers say Kim — who is about 5 feet, 8 inches tall and has previously weighed 140 kilograms— may have lost about 10-20 kilograms.
“If outside observers picked up on the change in Kim’s appearance, you can bet your bottom dollar that the North Korean people noticed it, too, and more quickly,” Reuters quoted Christopher Green, a Korea specialist at Leiden University in the Netherlands.
whether Kim’s weight loss is due to illness, or whether he decided that it was time to get fit, the saga is obscure— and the intention behind the state media coverage is unknown.
“It is a little strange that they would show him in such ill-fitting clothes, as the optics do seem to emphasise his weight loss,” Jenny Town, director of the U.S.-based 38 North project, which monitors North Korea, told Reuters.
The dictator has admitted a “tense” food situation that could worsen if this year’s crops fail, aggravating economic problems amid strict self-imposed border and movement restrictions that have slowed trade to a trickle.
“The most likely reason they would mention his declining weight in this way would, in my opinion, be related to ongoing COVID-19-related border measures,” said Chad O’Carroll, CEO of the Seoul-based Korea Risk Group.
“Regardless of the motivation for Kim’s rapid weight loss, it seems there is propaganda value in showing that even the leader of North Korea is enduring the same food shortages that are hitting the country at the current time.”
The dictatorship may have intended from the beginning to emphasise the fact that Kim is working hard for the people at a time of widespread hardship, or its messaging may have been an unintended consequence of Kim’s inevitable appearance, Christopher Green, a Korea specialist at Leiden University in the Netherlands, told Reuters.
“What matters is that the North Korean regime will have received word from its many, many, many informants that Kim’s condition was a talking point among ordinary people,”
“From there it is a simple matter to respond by designing a propaganda strategy to use the existing public discussion to the regime’s advantage.”
Nevertheless, the dictator’s apparent weight loss is more likely an attempt to improve his health, rather than a sign of illness, according to Hong Min, a senior analyst at Seoul’s Korea Institute for National Unification.
Kim’s weight loss has become the talk of the town after the unidentified resident of Pyongyang expressed his grief.
“Seeing respected general secretary (Kim Jong Un) looking emaciated breaks our people’s heart so much,” the man said in an interview aired by state broadcaster KRT on Friday.
“Everyone is saying that their tears welled up,” he said.