Name: What Kim Jong Un’s Changing Outfits Reveal About North Korea
Uploaded: 2024-01-01T05:01:00Z
Duration: 6 min 40 s
Description: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's appearance in public has shifted since he came to power over a decade ago. WSJ analyzes the subtle changes in Kim’s attire and what it signals about the future of his regime. Photo Composite: Emily Siu

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's appearance in public has shifted since he came to power over a decade ago. WSJ analyzes the subtle changes in Kim’s attire and what it signals about the future of his regime. Photo Composite: Emily Siu

https://m.wsj.net/video/20231219/563e7288-ebc4-4ebd-a57c-b09b536eba0a/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

What Kim Jong Un’s Changing Outfits Reveal About North Korea

Narrator: These photos show some of Kim Jong Un's most iconic public appearances as North Korea's leader over the past 12 years. From 2011, when he came to power following his father's death, to one of the many events he attended as North Korea emerged from the Coronavirus Pandemic. Jenny Town is the director of 38 North, a North Korea focused website. She has been studying the subtle shifts in Kim's attire over the years.

Kim Jong Un is the face of North Korea and the persona that he puts out, really tells you how he wants the people to see him.

Narrator: We look at what can be gleaned about the changing state of North Korea from Kim's wardrobe choices. And what his different looks signal about the future of his regime. Kim Jong Un's public appearances are all carefully choreographed and often packed with symbolism. In late 2019, Kim was pictured riding on a white horse through Mount Peaktu. The mountain is one of the country's most sacred sites, a place many North Koreans believe to be where the first Korean kingdom was founded.

These were special horses that were gifted to the Kim family. Only the leaders have these special horses. They would only have a photo shoot here if it was a very important message they were trying to send. This was, the North Koreans were going to do it in their own way, reasserting that self-reliance attitude.

Narrator: Descendants of the Kim family, namely Kim Jong Un's late grandfather, Kim Il Sung, and father, Kim Jong Il, seen standing on the mountain in this painting, have run the country since its founding more than 70 years ago. In another painting of the two former North Korean leaders on the peak, shows there's one outfit that's common between all three Kims. The Mao suit. The pointed collar, to the neck buttoning, and the four pockets in the front. The suit is known as the Mao suit in the West because they were popularized during the reign of Mao Zedong, the founder of communist China. It's one of Kim's most common wardrobe choices.

You can see here, especially at the beginning of Kim Jong Un's tenure as the leader, you saw him wear this quite often.

Narrator: Kim wore the Mao suit when he met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, during his first trip abroad since coming to power, in 2018. He also wore similar outfits in talks with different world leaders at a time when Pyongyang was negotiating nuclear disarmament with the US.

Donald: My friend.

He met with Donald Trump. He had this typical Mao suit on that was very representative of the North Korean identity. It might've been, yeah, to differentiate himself from the other world leaders and to maintain that North Korean presence.

Narrator: But Kim also likes to wear Western suits, especially while attending events back home. Town says this shows Kim wants to portray a different image for the domestic audience.

In one of his New Year's speeches, he started to wear these Western suits in these formal meetings, and especially the important ones. There wasn't the Mao suit anymore, domestically. You saw much more of this global persona, much more of this Western style look. I think there was a level of confidence here and a trying to portray that the country was moving forward and especially on equal terms with the rest of the world.

Narrator: Kim's appearance before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic reflects his political messaging. As negotiations over North Korea's denuclearization collapsed in 2019- Kim made frequent public outings in a bid to rally the country.

He was out doing site visits like this one here, like he's, you know, out with the people in a pretty typical attire that's seasonally appropriate, but casual, to try and, you know, connect with the people more. There was a lot of note that he was out doing these site visits maybe about every couple of weeks.

Narrator: But when COVID-19 began to spread across the globe and North Korea closed its borders, Kim barely appeared in public.

Towards the middle to end of the pandemic we did see sort of a new Kim Jong Un emerge. You can see, especially in this picture, how much thinner he is, especially compared to this one here. One of the narratives that went on at that time domestically was that the people were also so concerned that he had lost so much weight and that he was suffering for the people along with the people, during a very difficult time for the country.

Narrator: But as the pandemic came to an end and North Korea began its gradual reopening, Kim started to look more like his old self.

There was definitely a shift in the public narrative in Kim Jong Un's priorities as well. A real shift towards more military development. We saw a lot of new missile systems being tested and developed. We saw a lot more military activity when the economy wasn't doing so good. That does convey a sense of optimism.

Narrator: In March, 2022, North Korean state media released a heavily edited video showing Kim wearing sunglasses and a black leather jacket as he oversaw the test of the new intercontinental ballistic missile.

For him to have come out in this bomber jacket, it really set the tone of trying to create his own persona, trying to look more Western. Maybe it was trying to look kind of like Top Gun,

Narrator: The Top Gun style jacket marked a shift away from the outfits that symbolized the cult of personality around his father and grandfather.

This is a good kind of depiction of the evolution of Kim Jong Un, and here we see him with a much more traditional look, trying to look like his grandfather, trying to emulate that kind of traditional persona. And here he is. He is his own man, right? Like he's had a lot of successes, especially in the military front and the missile front, and things that his father and grandfather hadn't been able to accomplish. And we have seen Kim Jong Un throughout this period as he develops his own, not only style, but also his own style of leadership.

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