For the first time, North Korean officials have been seen wearing lapel pins with the image of leader Kim Jong Un creating apprehension around whether this is a new diktat from the supreme leader to reinforce his supremacy and command unflinching devotion to his leadership from all quarters.
This is significant for multiple reasons. For starters this is an obvious move by Kim Jong Un to catapult his personality to the level bestowed on his late dictator father and grandfather. Prior to this only the founder of Workers Party of Korea, that is, Kim's grandfather Kim Il Sung, or his son Kim Jong Il were allowed on power pins.
Now Kim Jon Un seems to have allowed himself to acquire the stature of his predecessors fully aware how both acquired a cult status. The existence of pins dedicated to Kim Jong Un had not been verified until state media published photos earlier this week on Sunday showing officials wearing his pins at a ruling Workers’ Party meeting.
With this practice Kim Jin Un has proclaimed himself to be the final reposoitory of all power and authority, the supreme leader unopposed and unlikely to be ever challenged. It is also undoubtedly a badge of loyalty to prove allegiance and surrender to the authority of the supreme leader.
But some experts are also looking at this development as Kim breaking away from legacy, shedding the halo of his ancestors to emerge powerful on his own. The larger idea being, to come of age and arrive in the scene representing none other but himself.
In that respect this maybe a clarion call to brace up for an out and out Kim Jong Un era, not liable to any legacy of the past, ready and willing to chart its own destiny. This could well be Kim’s proclamation of stepping out of the shadow of his predecessors. Will this also mean creating policies for North Korea which deviate from the family traditions, remains to be seen.
