Crying in public is something we tend to associate with the North Korean people rather than their rulers – who are often described as having a near god-like status. Who can forget, following the death of Kim Jong-il in 2011, how the streets of Pyongyang were lined with weeping mourners? So perhaps it was surprising to see Kim Jong-un crying in public this week, in a televised announcement to the mothers of North Korea. But while this may seem perplexing, the Supreme Leader’s message was as clear as ever: that loyalty to the Kim regime is paramount.
Kim was speaking at North Korea’s National Conference of Mothers. As this week’s meeting began – the first since 2012 – North Korean state media lauded how the women selected to attend the event were ‘heroines who gave birth to many children’, responsible for ‘beefing up national power’ to maintain the ‘harmony and prosperity of the large socialist family.’ There was no shortage of North Korean ideology. In his speech, Kim Jong-un urged mothers to have ‘firm faith’ in ‘speeding up the overall development of Korean-style socialism’ through childbirth. Emphasising how it was the ‘revolutionary duty’ of mothers to inculcate socialist values in their offspring, Kim made clear that ‘negative’ non-socialist values were pervading younger generations within North Korea, and the state would clamp down on them.
Amidst the bombastic rhetoric at this carefully directed, televised event, the North Korean leader struggled to contain his tears. The meeting comes at a time when, like its southern counterpart, North Korea is experiencing a declining fertility rate, which is hardly cheerful news for any country. The average number of babies born per woman has dropped from 1.88 in 2014 to 1.79 in 2022. And this is a country where technology is scarce; industrial and agricultural output is meagre; and the economy would struggle to be efficient even if sanctions were removed. Fewer children means a smaller future labour force, and so dimmer prospects for industrial development.
To counteract this, the North Korean leader pledged to continue providing housing subsidies, free food, medication, and household goods to women with three or more children, a rule that previously applied to families with triplets and quadruplets. Yet, with Pyongyang’s economy struggling to rebound from its Covid-induced border closure in 2020, not even the most revolutionary rhetoric can detract from the stark reality that children remain a financial cost to everyday North Korean families.
It is not the first time that the corpulent Kim Jong-un has cried in full view of the 26 million-strong North Korean population. Only three years earlier, at what was expected to be an exuberant celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Workers’ party, Kim infamously wept as he apologised to the party, military, and people for having ‘failed to live up’ to the trust they had placed in him. Kim’s reference to the ‘countless ordeals’ faced by his people remains true three years later. The reality is clear: he has failed to deliver domestic economic development, which he proudly announced in 2018.
That Kim Jong-un addressed mothers, however, reveals the broader propagandistic goals of his regime. First and foremost is the ultimate objective of regime survival. But there is also the importance of self-image. It is important for the party to portray the North Korean leader as something like the head of a family. Each of the three generations of the Kim regime has sought to depict their respective North Korean leader as not just a parental figure, but a maternal one. During the rules of Kim Il-sung and his successor, Kim Jong-il, propagandistic posters and poetry frequently displayed both leaders as motherly figures. Without their care and guiding hand the North Korean people could do little but weep.
Today, under the oppressive rule of Kim Jong-un, this message continues to be reinforced, particularly through the public displays of his ten-year old daughter, Kim Ju-ae. She has been visible at launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles and state banquets surrounded by senior military officials. By doing this, Kim’s regime aims to send clear signals to international and domestic audiences: not only is the regime intent on the leadership remaining within the family for years to come, but Kim Jong-un is also family man, who should be trusted and revered. Weeping tears of sorrow – however feigned – also feeds into this image. Just as the people cry and endure the dire consequences of meteorological disasters and economic sanctions, so too does the leader. There is, however, one difference: unlike the Supreme Leader and his coterie, there is no foreign currency slush fund to keep the people financially happy.
We will most likely see Kim Jong-un shed tears again in the future. Sometimes they will be genuine, at the dire economic development within the hermit kingdom, but at other times as a clear tool to stoke domestic support. This is straight out of the dictator’s playbook. The only people Kim will really cry for are his treasured family.
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