Kim Jong-un’s ‘people-first leadership’ on display at memorial site, analysts say

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un drives forklift at the construction site for a memorial honoring troops sent to Russia in this image captured from the Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday. Yonhap

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited a construction site on the outskirts of Pyongyang for a memorial honoring troops dispatched to Russia, where he planted a commemorative tree.

He was joined by his daughter Ju-ae, with whom he was seen holding a shovel and planting a sapling. He also drove a forklift himself, carrying Ju-ae and senior officials. Analysts say the display is intended to highlight a "people-first" image ahead of the Workers’ Party’s ninth congress.

The Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday reported that Kim visited the construction site of the Memorial Hall for Overseas Military Operations and Combat Feats the previous day with senior party, government and military officials, where he encouraged the soldiers building the monument and their commanders. Touring the site, Kim said it is “a great monument of the times symbolizing the valor of the outstanding sons of the Korean people,” adding that the project will create “another important ideological and spiritual base for education in victory traditions in our capital.”

Kim’s wife Ri Sol-ju and daughter Ju-ae accompanied him, with state media releasing images of the family planting trees alongside military construction workers.

Building a youthful leader image: the politics of shoveling

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's daughter Ju-ae, left, plants a tree with a shovel at a memorial for troops sent to Russia in this image captured from the Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday. Yonhap

Kim’s actions are widely interpreted as timed to coincide with the ninth party congress scheduled for early this year. Experts say the staging is meant to underscore respect for troops sent to Russia while projecting Kim as a youthful, family-oriented leader.

Yang Moo-jin, a chair professor at the University of North Korean Studies, says Kim’s hands-on shoveling and forklift driving are meant to calm anger among families of fallen soldiers and emphasize that the leader, in his early 40s, is youthful. He says involving family members helps cultivate an image of a caring leader and instills the idea of a “socialist extended family” among the people.

The concept frames North Korean society as a single family, defining relations among the leader, the party and the people as those of parents and children who serve one another.

A Ministry of Unification official also says recent public appearances by Ju-ae appear to emphasize family imagery rather than succession, adding that if Pyongyang wanted to stress succession, placing her behind Kim rather than at the center would be more natural.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.