Crackdown on smoking doesn’t stop Kim Jong-un from lighting up
Despite a nationwide campaign demonizing cigarettes and telling the residents to quit smoking, the executor himself is still smoking (Image: Rodong Sinmun)
North Korea has launched an educational campaign telling people to get with the times and stop smoking, but the chain-smoking leader Kim Jong-un doesn’t appear to have got the message.
Making its point with the usual dose of abuse for citizens, a new government video calls smokers “21st-century laggards” who refuse to “break free from outdated habits.”
In a showing last month in Onsong County, Chongjin City, secretly recorded and made available, residents were harangued about the global trend against smoking. The video showed people, primarily from Pyongyang, lighting up in public places.
“What’s even more concerning is that these smokers, who light up without regard for time or place, are young people,” the narrator said.
This phenomenon, the video said, contradicts a flourishing new “youth hero culture” that emphasizes noble virtues and customs that is allegedly spreading across the country, particularly in places where young people live and work.
“If individuals behave immorally and are uncultured like this, what will happen to the beautiful and noble socialist traditions that previous generations have created and passed down?” the narrator said. “How can we be confident in our future when faced with such behavior?”
Following the lecture, the party official leading the meeting sharply criticized smokers. “Smoking on the streets, causing discomfort to others, is a social problem that can no longer be ignored.”
Those present, our source tells us, were somewhat confused by these remarks. It made them immediately think of Kim Jong-un, a man who always smokes in public and at events.
On August 16, the day before the lecture, Kim visited the 4.25 House on the outskirts of Pyongyang, where children affected by recent floods are staying in temporary facilities and continuing their studies. State TV showed him beside an ashtray at the back of a classroom.
“The government lectures people about how smoking in public is uncultured and immoral, calling them inconsiderate. So how are we supposed to respond when the leader smokes in front of kids in school?” the source told us.
The children in question were from Uiju County in North Pyongan Province, who were evacuated on Kim’s orders following floods. When he went to check up on them, footage showed a cigarette and an ashtray on a table beside the chair in a classroom where Kim Jong-un was sitting.
It was also revealed that Kim had entered the classroom with several officials in tow while a lesson was in progress.
Clearly, whether an act is “inconsiderate, immoral, and uncultured” in North Korea, as the educational video said, depends on who is doing it.
Era is a North Korean defector and an experienced journalist who offers a unique perspective on one of the world's most secretive nations. Having escaped the oppressive regime, Era has leveraged her keen understanding of North Korean society to become a beacon of truth. Through her extensive network of in-country reporters, she maintains real-time communication with sources inside North Korea, providing unparalleled insights into the ground realities of the closed society.
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