Kim Jong-un - Innocent, adorable and the poster-boy for murderous dictatorship

[webfact]

Innocent, adorable and the poster-boy for murderous dictatorship
Elias Groll
Foreign Policy
Washington


Pictures released by North Korean Central Television last week show leader Kim Jong-un as a child.

WASHINGTON: -- Kim Jong-un was adorable as a child. He had big puffy cheeks, a funny smile and made military salutes from an early age. His parents - or perhaps his caretakers - liked to dress him up in military uniforms. And that's how he's portrayed in baby pictures released last week by North Korean state television.

Clothed in military uniforms complete with shoulder boards, collar insignias and an officers cap, Kim appears to be between the ages of four and six. He is pictured drawing. In another photograph, he is pictured saluting someone off camera.

The photographs, which were displayed during a performance of the Moranbong Band girl group, appear aimed at reinforcing North Korea's cult of racial purity. North Korea's national ideology is built on the notion that Koreans, as a people, are far more pure and innocent than any other race. As a result, they require a strong, paternal leader to guide them through a wicked world that is far too cruel for ordinary Koreans.

These photographs of Kim play on both notions: presenting the country's future dictator as a wholly innocent, quite adorable child while also casting him as a military leader from birth. That notion of Korean purity and vulnerability - inspired in part by the country's long history of foreign invasions - serves as the basis for the North's constant wartime footing.

Because history has made the vulnerability of the Korean nation all too obvious, the rule of the Kim family and the military state they oversee comes to be seen as a historical necessity. It's an argument made popular by BR Myers in his book "The Cleanest Race".

It's important to note that there is no way to verify that these photographs are in fact of Kim Jong-un. They could very well be doctored. Regardless, they are part of a cynical attempt to perpetuate a national myth that has helped prop up a murderous regime. A United Nations report from earlier this year described a mechanism of repression that made torture, execution and forced starvation a matter of North Korean state policy.

North Korea of course gears its propaganda efforts toward attempting to justify such policies. And a constant threat of war is central to that effort. In a series of images released along with and shortly after the publishing of Kim's baby pictures, the country's supreme leader is seen inspecting the country's military forces.

He is of course met by adoring, tearful crowds.

The message? That adorable baby has grown to be a man tough enough to keep North Korea safe in a hostile world.


-- The Nation 2014-04-30

[krisb]

Brainwashed from birth.

[ABCer]

Millions of people must suffer because an abortion was not performed in due time.

( Pro-Life and Anti-Abortionists, - drop your bombs at the point TBA).

[Kimagure]

This is kind of scary... Except for his hairstyle, he looks exactly the same now. Especially that photo on the right.

[Songhua]

This is kind of scary... Except for his hairstyle, he looks exactly the same now. Especially that photo on the right.

It seems his head's always been the same size.

[Thaddeus]

I believe that Stalin was a cute kid, and good to his Mum.

[apetley]

"adorable"?

Looks like just another ugly, fat and over indulged child to me.

[Scott]

Off-topic posts and replies deleted.

[ABCer]

Every child is innocent...

Until proven guilty by his own life and deeds...

Logic - not every child deserves to be born? Right? Wrong?

[empireboy]

He's a product of his conditioning... sadly, THAT is the cause of so many maladies in life

[axact]

Adorable ? he looks like a fat over indulged child of a Hi So, most North Koreans are thin to the point of being malnourished. I bet he did nasty things to animals as a child, now he does it to dissenting fellow countrymen. I blame the parent !

Obviously most other countries are out to get North Korea so they need to be harsh on their people in case they think the grass is greener on the otherside (which of course it is)

[marko kok prong]

so no photo's of him killing cats,or mice or birds,he must keep them in his personal album.

[Krataiboy]

And of course he's hung like a horse! (In a country where, according to the Huffington Post, men have the smallest average penis size in the world).

[WoopyDoo]

Yes indeed..... Protecting the poor vulnerable people by encasing them inside the most brutal and despotic dictatorship the world has ever known.

Where the streets are empty because people have no freedom of movement, almost no cars on the roads because you have to be a preferred party member to even be able to apply for permission to own one, and that goes for motorcycles or any form of personal transport, something ordinary people will never be permitted to own.

They can't even travel on buses and trains without an official permit allowing them to make the trip, and then there are constantly military watching their every move.

Every village no matter how small right across the country is ringed with a chain-link fence which is topped with barbed wire and guarded by a village unit of armed military patrolling it while the people are kept in there like animals and only allowed out with permission to do things like work in the fields under armed supervision.

The entire country is like one big controlled human zoo.... nothing less.

They call this 'protection'?.... I call it the most barbaric destruction of basic human rights and freedom.

The sooner the country is invaded and the people set free... the better.

[tubby johnson]

He's grown to full size now, so let's eat him!

[Scott]

Off-topic post deleted.