I cried while encouraging childbirth at a recent mothers’ convention.
“Even for a democratic leader, public tears are unusual.”
An American media outlet highlighted the case of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un shedding tears at an official event and evaluated it as highly unusual for a dictator.
On the 10th (local time), Business Insider highlighted the image of Chairman Kim shedding tears in public in an article titled ‘Kim Jong-un is one of the few world dictators seen crying.’
The most recent time Chairman Kim shed tears in public was at the 5th National Mother’s Rally held on the 3rd for the first time in 11 years.
According to the Associated Press, Chairman Kim mentioned North Korea’s low birth rate problem at the event and urged women to give birth to more children as part of their patriotic duty.
In particular, he encouraged childbirth by saying, “Preventing the decline in the birth rate and raising and educating children well is a family problem that we all need to solve together with mothers.”
According to the ‘2023 Asia-Pacific Population Status Report’ released by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) on the 13th of last month, this year’s total fertility rate in North Korea (the average number of children expected to be born to a woman of childbearing age between 15 and 49 years old in her lifetime) is 1.8. appeared as a person.
It is higher than South Korea (0.9 people), but lower than the 2.1 people needed to maintain North Korea’s population, and is interpreted to mean that Chairman Kim is so concerned about the population problem that he even shed tears to encourage childbirth.
This is not the first time Chairman Kim has shown tears.
In 2011, he was seen shedding tears during the funeral of his father Kim Jong-il, and in 2018, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun quoted a North Korean defector who was familiar with North Korea’s internal situation and reported that high-ranking party officials saw Chairman Kim crying over his failure to improve the North Korean economy. .
In a speech at a military parade commemorating the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party of Korea in October 2020, he showed heightened emotion, saying he did not think his efforts were enough for the country.
Among past dictators, not many leaders have shown tears in public.
However, there are rumors that Russian Stalin often shed tears in secret, and Russian President Vladimir Putin was also seen crying during his third term election speech near the Kremlin in 2012.
Business Insider said, “Even for the leader of a democratic country, crying in front of the public is a headline-worthy moment,” and evaluated it as very unusual for Chairman Kim to show tears.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.