Galloping through the forest atop a white horse, Kim Jong Un stars in a new North Korean propaganda video that touts his economic leadership but ignores a recent spate of sanctions-busting missile launches, IgbereTV reports.
Pyongyang started the year by conducting a record seven weapons tests, including firing its most powerful missile since 2017, raising fears Kim could restart long-range or nuclear testing.
But the government-produced documentary released this week highlights Kim’s struggle to right the country’s battered economy, which is reeling from a years-long blockade due to the coronavirus and international sanctions.
“The overriding theme of the documentary is Kim’s devotion to and hard work for the people,” Rachel Minyoung Lee, a non-resident fellow with the 38 North programme at the Washington-based Stimson Center, told AFP.
The video is bookended by footage of Kim riding a white horse, a key symbol of the Kim family’s dynastic rule.
But “I don’t think we should read too much into the horse scenes, much less link them to North Korea’s recent missile launches and North Korea’s missile test plans,” Lee said.
With talks with Washington stalled, North Korea has doubled down on Kim’s vow to modernise the regime’s armed forces, despite reports of soaring food prices and worsening hunger.
The propaganda film makes coded reference to the country’s “worst-ever hardships” in 2021, showing footage of Kim carefully making his way down stairs as a narrator describes how his “body has been completely withered away” by hard work
