A contemplative Kim Jong-Un, walking through Central Europe, daydreams about his motherland of North Korea. The portrait above, discovered in an art gallery in the Rason region of North Korea by a Canadian tourist, is believed to be the first outsider look at Kim Jong-Un propaganda and helps us speculate on the mythology being prepared to deify the future leader. Likely representing Kim Jr,’s studies abroad in Switzerland, the portrait shows him looking very much like his grandfather, the immortalized Kim Il-Sung.
The Globe and Mail article quotes B.R. Myers, author of The Cleanest Race and a PhD in North Korean literature:
“It goes to the heart of what will be the regime’s main problem in glorifying the boy, namely the fact that he was overseas during at least part of the famine or [so-called] Arduous March. The regime is for some reason loath to let foreigners see this nascent personality cult,” Prof. Myers said. “We have seen footage of [Kim Jong-un], and of course we can see him on the TV news every few days … but we know next to nothing about how the regime is articulating his biography. This painting offers important insight into what kind of mythobiography the regime is either planning or is already teaching the masses in party meetings, study meetings etc. outside the view of foreign visitors.”
He noted that the young man in the painting was gazing at the sun rising in the east, another suggestion that North Korea consumed his thoughts, even while he was far from home.
However, another North Korea expert, Andrei Lankov believes this artwork to be an older portrait of Kim Il-Sung, set in the 1920s (Thanks @LiberateLaura). The evidence is substantial for either claim, but we will have to wait and see as North Korea’s propaganda machine begins work to glorify the youthful leader-to-be.
Source: The Globe and Mail
