hankyoreh

An image of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. (KCNA/Yonhap News)

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un published a letter on Jan. 1 in which he “pledg[ed] once again that I will always remain faithful to the great people [of North Korea].”

On Jan. 1, the Rodong Sinmun devoted its entire front page to a 90-word letter including this pledge, which the newspaper said had been sent “to all the people, greeting the hope-filled new year, Juche 110 (2021).”

In the letter, Kim said, “I offer thanks to the people for having invariably trusted and supported our Party even in the difficult times.”

“In the new year, too, I will work hard to bring earlier the new era in which the ideals and desires of our people will come true,” he also wrote.

“As we greet the new year, I extend my heartfelt greetings to all the people,” Kim said.

“I sincerely wish all the families across the country greater happiness and beloved people, good health,” he continued.

Kim’s letter differed in both content and format from his typical New Year’s address. It was markedly shorter than his previous addresses, and did not mention any major policy objectives.

A letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un published by the Rodong Sinmun and the Korean Central News Agency. (Yonhap News)

Analysts said Kim may have forgone a New Year’s address because of his plans to deliver a speech including a “general project report” at the 8th Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) Congress “to be held in early June,” which is to outline the “strategic tasks for the new stage of struggle” in domestic policy, inter-Korean policy, and foreign policy. In 2020, Kim substituted his New Year’s address with speeches delivered between Dec. 28 and 31, 2019, at the fifth plenary session of the 7th WPK Central Committee. This means Kim has not given a New Year’s address for two consecutive years.

It was also the first time that a North Korean leader released a letter or congratulatory message on Jan. 1 rather than a New Year’s address since 1995 — the year after the death of North Korean founder and Kim Jong-un’s grandfather Kim Il-sung — when then leader Kim Jong-un sent a short congratulatory message on Jan. 1 beginning with the words, “We greet the new year having spent 1994 crying bitter tears.”

At the top of the second page of its Jan. 1 edition, the Rodong Sinmun published a report that Kim had “visited the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun at 00:00, January 1, 2021 together with the delegates to the 8th Congress of the Party [WPK].”

According to the newspaper, Kim visited the palace’s mausoleum where the bodies of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il lie in state and “offered them his New Year's greetings in the deepest reverence.” Also present for Kim’s visit to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun were “members of the Party Central Committee leadership body and the delegates to the Party Congress,” including WPK Central Committee Political Bureau Presidium members Choe Ryong-hae, Ri Pyong-chol, Kim Tok-hun, and Pak Pong-ju.

Page 6 of the same edition of the Rodong Sinmun was devoted to a Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) report that characterized the “80-day campaign” from Oct. 12 to Dec. 30 of last year as an “all-people advance by dint of self-reliance” that had achieved a “shining victory.”

A New Year’s celebratory performance, flag-raising ceremony, and fireworks display held at Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang from 11 pm on Dec. 31 into early in the morning on Jan. 1 were broadcast live by Korean Central Television and covered in detail in the Jan. 1 edition of the Rodong Sinmun.

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer

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