Kim said the property mogul and reality television star turned politician had been criticised on the US campaign trail as a “political layman”. Unlike most North Korean pronouncements, which tend to focus on governments rather than individuals, it was an unusually direct condemnation of the US president, calling him “mentally deranged” and a “dotard”. “He is framing the speech very much as the leader of his country,” John Delury of Yonsei University in Seoul told AFP. In the still image on screen, Kim looked straight into the camera, a microphone before him, the bookshelves behind him packed with green volumes – possibly the works of his father and grandfather Kim Jong-Il and Kim Il-Sung, his dynastic predecessors. They watched with grim expressions of resolve as Kim threatened to make Trump “pay dearly” for his threat at the United Nations to “totally destroy” North Korea. “A frightened dog barks louder,” the statement declared, as scores of citizens streamed towards the screen, bringing the crowd to hundreds of people. She read out Kim’s statement over a picture of him sitting at his desk in his office at the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party.
Then veteran newsreader Ri Chun-Hee appeared, who in her time has announced nuclear tests, rocket launches and leaders’ deaths. Korean Central Television’s main bulletin, which airs soon after 3pm (0630 GMT), can be relied on to focus on the doings of the Supreme Leader, as Kim Jong-Un is known in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s official name.īut after Kim’s stingingly personal denunciation of US President Donald Trump was carried in the Friday edition of the Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the mouthpiece of the ruling Workers’ Party, and the official Korean Central News Agency, expectations for the broadcast were high.
White text appeared on a red background: “The faith of the revolutionary is unchangeable even in death.” Workers, students in grey uniforms, travelling families surrounded by piles of bags, women shielding themselves from the late summer sun with frilly parasols, for several minutes they all gazed at the rectangle with anticipation.
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