North Korea celebrates 10 years of Kim Jong Un’s rule

To commemorate his 10 years as leader of the Workers’ Party of
Korea (WPK), North Korea commended Kim Jong Un’s leadership in creating nuclear
weapons, lauded his political accomplishments, and displayed new portraits and
launched exhibitions.

On Monday, the younger Kim was elected as the top party and state
leader for the tenth time. For the entirety of the one-party state’s existence,
the Kim family has dominated.

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Choe Ryong Hae, a member of the WPK Central Committee’s Presidium
and one of Kim’s most senior officials, complimented the North Korean leader as
“a gifted thinker and theoretician, excellent statesman, and peerlessly
superb commander” in a speech at a national assembly on Sunday.

The celebrations kicked off a week of commemorations that will
culminate on Friday with the 110th anniversary of the birth of North Korea’s
founder and Kim Jong Un’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung.

North Korean troops have been seen rehearsing for a military
parade that could take place this week, according to commercial satellite
imagery. There are hints that North Korea may demonstrate its intercontinental
ballistic missiles (ICBMs) at the event.

North Korea sounded the alarm in Seoul, Tokyo, and Washington last
month when it conducted a full ICBM launch for the first time since 2017,
breaking a self-imposed moratorium on such testing. North Korea declared last
week that while it opposes war, it will not hesitate to use nuclear weapons if
attacked by South Korea.

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Choe called Kim “a peerless patriot and a great defender of
peace” for making North Korea “a full-fledged military power equipped
with all powerful physical means of self-defence.”

North Korea conducted four of its six nuclear tests under Kim’s
leadership and produced enormous intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs)
capable of striking any place in the United States, according to analysts.

Kim has promised to improve inhabitants’ lives and try to rebuild
North Korea’s economy, which has been hit hard by international sanctions,
COVID-19 lockdown measures, and severe weather in recent years. Humanitarian
crises have been predicted by UN organisations.

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On Sunday, state media revealed a rare new official photo of Kim
and announced that a Pyongyang Museum had inaugurated a new exhibition to
highlight his “immortal leadership”.