A video purporting to show North Korean leader Kim Jong Un weeping over the horrible state of his country’s economy is reportedly circulating in the country, which tightly controls the internet and TV news shows.
“According to a defector to South Korea who once served North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, this different and rarely seen side of Kim Jong Un featured in a documentary to educate party officials who lead the lowest rungs of the leadership apparatus or state-run enterprises.” Japan’s Asahi Shinbun reports.
The video shows Kim Jong Un standing on an unspecified stretch of coastline gazing toward the horizon as tears trickle down his cheek.
A narrator explains that the North Korean leader is distraught over his inability to radically overhaul the economy to make the reclusive country a vibrant power.
The defector learned about the video from a contact who remains in North Korea.
According to the defector, the video surfaced from around April and was shown to those in high-ranking positions at local branches of the Workers’ Party or state-run companies.
Because all information in North Korea is controlled by the government, there’s speculation that Kim wants the footage out to help humanize him before any summit with President Trump takes place. Trump and Kim were expected to meet on June 12, but Trump announced last week that the summit had been postponed — although he later said it’s up in the air.
Kim got into a war of words with Trump soon after the Republican moved into the White House. When Kim mentioned his country has nuclear weapons, Trump boasted that “my button is bigger.”
Over the last few months, Kim has softened his rhetoric and is said to be fully open to a summit with Trump.
In April, Mike Pompeo, then head of the CIA, secretly visited North Korea for talks with Kim in which the dictator reportedly said his nation was prepared to abandon its nuclear weapons. A high-level official from the country has also visited Washington this month.
North Korea has the worst economy of the 43 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
“The despotic military regime has largely resisted reform, although it has tolerated some private entrepreneurship to generate growth and enhance its chances for political survival. Industrial capital stock is nearly beyond repair after years of underinvestment, shortages of spare parts, and poor maintenance. Frequent weather-related crop failures aggravate ongoing systemic problems in agriculture, including a lack of arable land, collective farming practices, and poor soil quality,” the Heritage Foundation has reported.
