North Korea's Kim Jong-un takes center stage in murals over predecessors
Published: 23 Jun. 2025, 11:10
![This image captured on June 23, 2025, from the Korean Central Television, shows murals of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, current leader Kim Jong-un and former leader Kim Jong-il, installed outside the Kim Jong Suk Textile Mill in Pyongyang. [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/06/23/085a3e6e-8e97-4f8e-a510-1837bf453d1a.jpg)
This image captured on June 23, 2025, from the Korean Central Television, shows murals of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, current leader Kim Jong-un and former leader Kim Jong-il, installed outside the Kim Jong Suk Textile Mill in Pyongyang. [YONHAP]
Mosaic murals installed at a factory in Pyongyang place current North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the center between his predecessors, North Korean TV footage has shown, signifying the ongoing campaign to cement his stand-alone authority.
The state-run Korean Central Television featured the textile mill in the North Korean capital during a news report late Saturday, introducing it as the site Kim visited for an on-site inspection in 2016.
Mosaic murals of Kim and the two former North Korean leaders — Kim's father Kim Jong-il and grandfather Kim Il Sung — were installed outside the factory, with the current leader positioned at the center between them.
Such murals are often used in North Korea as propaganda tools promoting the authority of the ruling Kim family. It is rare for Kim Jong-un to be placed at the center, as the family is typically portrayed in generational order, from Kim Il Sung to Kim Jong-un, in these murals.
A set of Kim family murals featuring Kim Jong-un at the center was first seen in October 2022 during a ceremony marking the completion of a greenhouse factory in Ryonpho, South Hamgyong Province.
These murals depicting Kim Jong-un at the center appear to be part of the country's broader propaganda efforts to distance his authority from that of his powerful predecessors and build his own distinctive, stand-alone domain.
Solidifying his independent authority, distinct from his established and popular predecessors, has been one of Kim's key tasks since taking power in late 2011.
Since assuming office, Kim had visited the Kumsusan family mausoleum on Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong-il's birthdays every year to pay tribute.
Kim, however, has skipped a visit to the Kumsusan Palace on North Korean founder Kim Il Sung's birthday for the third consecutive year in 2025 and has reduced the frequency of visits on other occasions in efforts seen as diminishing his reliance on his predecessors for authority and solidifying his independent domain.
Yonhap
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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