North Korean leader Kim Jong-un addresses a meeting of army battalion commanders and battalion political instructors in Pyongyang, held from Nov. 14-15, 2024, in Pyongyang, in this photo provided by the Korean Central News Agency. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korea’s state media has made no mention of leader Kim Jong-un’s birthday, which reportedly falls on Wednesday, despite speculation the North may formalize its celebrations this year amid its glorification campaigns for him.
North Korea has not officially designated Kim’s birthday, known to be Jan. 8, for special celebrations, though the birthdays of late state founder Kim Il-sung and his successor, Kim Jong-il, have been marked as national holidays.
The Rodong Sinmun, a North Korean newspaper catering to the general domestic readership, carried a story on Kim’s attendance at a ceremony to inaugurate regional factories on its front page Wednesday but provided no coverage of his birthday.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), which delivers news stories to external readers, also did not make any mention of Kim’s birthday.
The possibility that North Korea may formalize his birthday this year has been raised as the country has been focusing on its glorification campaign fully to the incumbent leader.
Since early last year, North Korea’s state media has rarely used the term the Day of the Sun for the birthday of Kim Il-sung, which falls on April 15. The move is seen as an effort to reduce Kim’s reliance on his ancestors for authority and strengthen his status as a stand-alone leader.
In a related move, North Korea also ceased using the “juche,” or self-reliance, calendar, symbolizing Kim Il-sung, last year.
Stamps, calendars and other state publications recently issued by North Korea have also abandoned the juche year-counting system.
Some experts in South Korea assess that the North’s reservations regarding Kim’s birthday may be aimed at distracting public attention from the leader’s mother, Ko Yong-hui, originally a Korean resident in Japan, who resettled in the North and gave birth to him without officially marrying Kim Jong-il.
North Korea places significant importance on the Mount Paektu bloodline of the governing Kim family as the basis of its hereditary power.
The country has described Kim Il-sung as having fought against Japanese colonialism from the mountain, the highest on the Korean Peninsula. The North also called the mountain the sacred birthplace of Kim Jong-il, though historians and foreign officials have said he was born in Russia.
The date of Kim Jong-un’s birthday was first discovered in 2014, when the KCNA described a North Korean visit by former American professional basketball player Dennis Rodman that year as taking place on the occasion of Kim’s birthday.
(Yonhap)
