The DPRK Seen through Souvenir Photographs

 Kim Jong Un, President of the State Affairs of the DPRK, enjoys having photographs taken with the people. On the morning of New Year’s Day in 2022, he had a photograph session with ordinary working people including meritorious people and labour innovators, who had contributed to making 2021 a successful year.

According to the country’s media, Jo Mun Son, a 57-year-old worker of the turbine workshop of the Pyongyang Thermal Power Station, has been working on the same job for several decades. Kim Jong Un had a photograph taken with him holding his callused hand in his.

And a workteam leader of the Tonam Cooperative Farm in Yonan County, South Hwanghae Province, a major granary on the western coast, is known as a farmer who worked hard all year round to get a high yield in the face of the unfavourable weather conditions last year. At the Fourth Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea held in late December 2021, Kim Jong Un sent thanks in the name of the Party Central Committee to the exemplary officials, working people, scientists and technicians in the agricultural sector. Then he called some farmers, including the workteam leader, to his place and had a souvenir photograph taken with them.

Worthy of note about the photographs is the flower decoration in the form of flower basket on both sides and various other parts of the venue. The decoration can be interpreted as warm congratulations of Kim Jong Un to them. After the photograph session they gathered around Kim Jong Un and had amiable talks with him.

Photographs he has taken with people are numerous and all of them are indicative of the kinship between the leader and his people.

Kim Jong Un does not mind a place at all when having a photograph taken with people, be it a production site, or a small garden before a house or a room in a house. When they have the honour of having a photograph taken with him, all people vie with one another to get a closer place to him and hold his hand. It reflects the kinship feelings between the leader and the people.

In September 2021, Kim Jong Un invited to the office building of the WPK Central Committee some labour innovators and other meritorious people participating in the celebrations of the 73^rd founding anniversary of the DPRK. Among those invited were young pupils. They were ordinary workers’ sons and daughters who were exemplars in the studies and the organizational life of the Children’s Union.

He summoned them to his side and praised them for their merits. Then he highly appreciated the efforts of their parents to bring up their children as the pillars of the country. And he posed for a photograph with the children as well as the labour innovators and other meritorious people–all together. This reminded the viewers of a single family.

What is the reason behind such a scene? The following can be an explanation.

When the northern part of North Hamgyong Province was severely affected by flooding in 2016, Kim Jong Un took all necessary measures for building new houses for the victims, saying that they had to be provided with new houses before the winter came even if it meant having to enlist all the potentials of the country to do so. In October 2020, he went to the rehabilitation project site of the flooded Komdok area at the risk of his life by crossing a makeshift railway bridge. One day he calculated on his handbook the amount of fish needed to be supplied to all the orphans and old people in rest homes across the country and proposed building an exclusive fishing station for the purpose.

At the Fourth Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the WPK held months ago, Kim Jong Un took important measures for providing all the students across the country with high-quality school uniforms and school bags of a new style at the state expense. As he regards the people and children as his family members, he could make such a momentous decision despite the difficult conditions of the country.

It is natural that the Korean people should regard him as their father and try to get closer to him when they meet him.