Kim Jong-un: What kind of leader is he really?
Kim Jong un (Photo: kremlin.ru)
Until now, in writing about Kim Jong-un, I have focused on his humanity or lack of it. For example, I’ve noted what we all know, that he is a cold-blooded man who even killed his own brother and uncle to preserve his throne.
But I have never seriously thought about what kind of leader he might be. Perhaps such a question never mattered to me. I had already defined him as a pathetic man who inherited the throne simply because he bore the Kim family name, despite having no particular ability.
Maybe, however, my disillusionment with North Korean society led me to underestimate him. It is possible that he possesses hidden abilities I do not know of.
Perhaps he is merely an unlucky king who inherited a collapsing nation, one that is tilted so far over that it is beyond his power to set upright again.
I began to think more deeply about this subject after attending a defense forum held in South Korea. At the forum, people discussed a series of things Kim had done recently, according to North Korean media.
On screen, there he was giving speeches before the people. He had tears in his eyes. He was also shown stroking the cheek of a soldier dispatched to Russia, and carefully examining another soldier’s injured leg. Such scenes were undeniably tender and moving.
Watching them, one cannot help but wonder: Is this genuine? Or is it staged?
One participant at the forum remarked that, whether genuine or staged, Kim was fulfilling his duties as a leader. Another said that even if it was staged, it showed he was at least conscientious enough to put on such a display. If such gestures soothe public sentiment and inspire loyalty, then he has done his job as a leader.
Their point was that, judged purely from the leadership point of view, Kim is not entirely lacking. This was what prompted me to reconsider him.
Among all the participants in that forum, I may have been the one most personally and most deeply affected by Kim Jong-un’s direct and indirect influence. Do you know what we feel most strongly living in North Korea? It is the constant threat to survival. And survival does not just mean food.
Remembering those who were once around me, I can count more than ten people who were arrested or even killed for political or ideological reasons.
That is why survival occupies the highest place in my worldview. Nothing is more important than survival. Other things – such as love of nature, treating a dog like a family member, or opposing the exploitation of chickens by enlarging their cages – are luxuries when your own survival itself is at stake.
Perhaps I sound extreme. But anyone who has experienced real threats to their survival would agree to some extent. Survival is sacred. I believe the gravest violation of human rights is the deprivation of the right to live. No state power, however great, has the right to take that away.
Returning to North Korea, let us reconsider the dispatch of troops to Russia. What did the state gain from sending its soldiers there? Kim agreed to trade the lives of citizens for some diplomacy with Russia.
He sent young men to their deaths, then appeared on television, choking back tears, saying he was sorry he could not protect them. Sorry he could not protect them from whom? He himself orchestrated it. From the very beginning, the deployment was shrouded in secrecy so that the soldiers themselves did not know they were being sent to war. How can a state behave like such a den of trickery?
The real issue comes after they die: compensation. In my thirty years living in North Korea, I have never seen the government compensate those who sacrificed their lives for the country. No matter how sorrowfully Kim strokes a soldier’s broken leg, what good does it do?
He is no doctor, and stroking a broken leg will not heal it. What use are words of comfort to the fallen soldiers and their families?
At the very least, some of the money received from Russia should be set aside to support the families of the victims.
A few months ago, I watched an American drama about World War II. In it, U.S. soldiers signed life insurance documents before going to the battlefield. That is how the world works: if something is taken, something must be given in return. I believe life insurance payouts are the minimum responsibility a government owes to those who die for their country.
But the North Korean government tries to resolve the issue by giving bereaved families medals of honor and sending their children to revolutionary schools that cost nothing. The medals are nothing more than gilded lumps of metal. They offer no financial help. And those children, unaware that their fathers died at the hands of the government, will grow up to work hard for that same government.
It is a vicious cycle.
Recently, North Korean media has repeatedly broadcast images of Kim in tears. It seems he hopes such displays will soothe public anger. But if crying could solve problems, then children would be the best problem-solvers in the world.
As the leader of millions of North Koreans, Kim’s duty is not to escape situations with tears but to care for their lives. If he must cry, he can do so alone, in his backyard. There is no need to blubber before the people, pleading to be pitied and insisting he is doing his best.
In capitalist societies, people say gratitude should be expressed not with tears but with money. I believe this saying would be far more useful if applied to North Korean society.
Born in Chongjin in 1990, Jang Mi was not a studious child, but under her mother’s influence, she graduated from high school and went on to university to take math and science. She worked as a wedding video editor for seven years until her defection in 2019.
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