Senior officials of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party were photographed this week wearing loyalty badges to Kim Jong-Un. It was the first time that senior officials in the country had been photographed wearing Kim Jong-Un's image rather than those of his father and grandfather, Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung. Experts on North Korea said the move was another step towards "full-scale deification."
Badges displaying either or both of Kim Jong-Un's predecessors have long been a mandatory adornment for North Koreans in public, and are required to be worn from the age of sixteen. The new badges were depicted being worn at a party meeting on July 1.
Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU), and Martin Weiser, an independent North Korea researcher, told NK News that the badges indicated an attempt to equate Kim Jong-Un with his father and grandfather's status as Eternal Leaders and cement his own image and reputation as independent of their accomplishments.
A song praising North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has recently been published in North Korea. In the accompanying music video, students, soldiers, and civilians in North Korea are seen singing lines such as, "Let's sing - Kim Jong Un, the great leader," and, "Let's be proud of Kim Jong Un." The song praising the North Korean dictator has become popular on the Chinese social media platform TikTok.
The South Korean Broadcasting Standards Commission announced that it had decided to ban the song. The commission added that 29 different versions of the song would be blocked, following a request from the country's intelligence services. "This song is a typical example of psychological warfare content that is being waged against South Korea," the commission said in a statement.
Under South Korean law, anyone who violates the decision could face up to seven years in prison. However, due to Seoul's efforts to increase freedom of expression, the punishment is usually lighter than the maximum penalty.