Kim Jong-un has been out of the public eye for nearly two months
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has not appeared in public for nearly two months, sparking a wave of speculation among experts and Western journalists. Against this backdrop, they are noting unusual changes in the workings of North Korea’s propaganda apparatus.
Due to the DPRK’s secrecy, it is virtually impossible to reliably determine Kim Jong-un’s current whereabouts, so the situation remains the subject of numerous speculations and observations.
Whereas Kim Jong-un used to appear in the news almost daily, opening factories or inspecting farms, an information vacuum has now formed around him. Several unusual developments point to this. In particular, there has been a mass removal of images: Photos of the leader have begun to disappear not only from North Korea’s official news outlets but also from international photo agencies (such as Getty), which previously published images from his trips.
There have also been strange glitches on government websites. The official portal of the English-language newspaper *Pyongyang Times* has stopped publishing articles about the supreme leader. Instead, the site currently redirects visitors to a page about the DPRK’s main zoo. Meanwhile, the articles that continue to be published appear without photographs. Mentions of the dictator have become rare, and his place at public events is increasingly being taken by other high-ranking officials.
It is impossible to reliably confirm Kim Jong-un’s current whereabouts due to the country’s isolation, but his most recent public appearances were as follows:
March 25. The most recent reliable photo and video evidence. Kim Jong-un met with Alexander Lukashenko in Pyongyang. Together, they took a public tour through the city’s central streets.
June 9. A meeting with a delegation from China. This event was accompanied by a media blackout: there were almost no direct footage of the meeting. Newspaper front pages featured only photos of local residents reading news about the visit or watching TV reports.
At present, the true reason for the North Korean leader’s disappearance remains unknown. However, a combination of factors—from his sudden disappearance from the public eye to the systematic erasure of digital traces—suggests that serious changes are taking place within the closed regime.
The Daily Star reports on this.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may face a loss of public trust and close scrutiny from the military if soldiers sent to Russia begin dying in large numbers.
