A badge with a portrait of only Kim Jong-un was first seen on officials in the DPRK at the tenth plenum of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), as follows from photographs of the Central Telegraph Agency (KCNA).
⠀
Among the images from the 10th Plenum are a number of close-ups of North Korean officials, clearly showing the badges on their jackets. They all wore a badge with a single portrait – Kim Jong-un.
⠀
According to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, this is the first time such an icon has been used.
⠀
During inter-Korean working-level talks in 2013, North Korean officials confirmed to South Korean journalists that in early 2012, the pin with a portrait of Kim Jong Un was produced in two versions, a round shape and a square one.
⠀
KCNA photographs show an icon of Kim Jong Un in the form of a red flag, with a portrait of the leader in the background.
⠀
Badges with portraits of North Korean leaders were required to be worn by all citizens in North Korea. The badge with the founder of the DPRK, Kim Il Sung, began to be issued in November 1970, and with his successor, Kim Jong Il, in February 1992, on the occasion of his 50th birthday.
⠀
According to the Yonhap Agency, after the death of Kim Jong Il in December 2011, badges with double portraits of both leaders were widely distributed among the North Korean public.
⠀
It is noted that the appearance of a badge with only one portrait of Kim Jong-un indicates increased efforts to “idealize” and “deify” the current leader, and changes in the country’s constitution and party rules are possible in the future to further strengthen his status.
