By Park Si-soo
Sunday was largely believed to be the birthday of North Korea’s new leader Kim Jong-un despite the fact that almost all personal details about him are still shrouded in uncertainty.
South Korean experts and intelligence authorities have pinpointed Jan. 8 as Kim’s birthday based on testimonies from Kenji Fujimoto, a Japanese sushi chef for North Korea’s ruling family between 1982 and 2001, North Korean defectors and the new leader’s friends in Bern, Switzerland, where he attended an international school during his teenage years.
But unlike the birthdays of his two predecessors ㅡ Kim Il-sung (April 15) and Kim Jong-il (Feb. 16) ㅡ that have been observed as national holidays with extravagant festivals and fireworks, the new leader’s birthday passed calmly, like any ordinary Sunday with no special events taking place across the communist state.
“Basically it (Kim’s birthday) is the result of a guessing game,” said Yang Moo-jin, a North Korea expert at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
Yang said if Jan. 8 was his birthday, the North’s “low-key observation of it reflects the fact that Kim’s grip on power is not firm yet.”
He didn’t rule out the possibility that the North intentionally ignored the birthday, citing the persistent atmosphere of mourning the death of its longtime leader Kim Jong-il.
North Korean media released neither articles nor video footage hinting that Sunday was its new ruler’s birthday. North Korean employees at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC) worked as usual on Sunday.
“Many factories in the complex ran as usual,” a South Korean worker at the GIC was quoted as saying in an interview. “North Korea has informed us of holidays for their workers there in advance. But we didn’t get any holiday notice for this Sunday.”
Kim Jong-il’s birthday was designated as a national holiday in 1976, one year after he was anointed as successor to his father and North Korea’s founder Kim Il-sung.
Some analysts presume the young Kim’s birthday falls on April 4, citing an unprecedented holiday on North Korea’s official calendar for this year. The date is in red without any explanation.
“It’s still unclear why April 4 is a national holiday,” Yang said.