Kim Jong Un and Lee Seol-jung, who has been missing for more than a year, watch a performance to mark the 79th anniversary of Kim Jong Il’s birth in the capital Pyongyang on Feb. 17, 2021.
North Korea has changed the English title of its leader Kim Jong Un to “president” instead of the previous “chairman” and “general secretary,” according to recent reports in official media.
Kim Jong Un is the third-generation ruler of the Kim Family dynasty and holds several titles, the most prominent of which are general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party, chairman of the State Council and supreme commander of the armed forces.
On Wednesday (17), North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency reported English-language news about Kim Jong Un and Lee Seol-jung, who were in the capital Pyongyang to watch a performance commemorating the 79th anniversary of Kim Jong Il’s birth, one of the country’s most important national holidays.
In the report, Kim Jong-un was referred to as “the president of the DPRK”. In fact, for the first Time since last week, when the North Korean media reported that the Cuban leader had sent a message to Kim Jong-un, the media changed the title to “President”, but Kim Jong-un’s title in Korean remained the same.
Why did Kim Jong Un change his title?
Yonhap News Agency quoted experts as saying that the move appears to be an attempt to make North Korea look like a “normal country” in the international arena, following the practice of heads of state such as Communist China and Russia being called “president.
The Wall Street Journal quoted Professor Park Won-gon of South Korea’s Handong Global University as saying that the adjustment is similar to that of Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping, who is the party’s general secretary while being called “president” internationally.
Last month (Jan. 10), the eighth congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea unanimously elected Kim Jong-un as the party’s general secretary, elevating his title once again. The new title of general secretary is mainly symbolic, given that Kim Jong-un is already the party chairman. The move seems to be intended to consolidate his authority in the face of certain economic challenges.
Kim Jong-un also presented economic development goals at the convention, rearranged party personnel and promised to build more advanced nuclear weapons, which is seen as pressure on new U.S. President Joe Biden.
The Communist Party’s leader has called himself “president” for years.
Under the communist system, the person who holds the power of a country is the “party” leader. In China, for example, Xi Jinping’s three most important titles are Party Secretary, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, and President, and he is often referred to as “General Secretary” or “President” in Chinese by official Communist Party media.
But for decades, the official Chinese media have referred to the party leader as “president” in English reports, which many analysts believe is an attempt to dilute the role of the “party” and the “president The “president” designation implies that this is a democratically elected leader, not the winner of a bloody power struggle within the “party.
During the Trump administration, senior U.S. government officials, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have changed Xi Jinping’s title to “General Secretary of the Communist Party of China,” and the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) has called for the Communist Party leader to no longer be referred to as “president “because that is not the democratic president elected by the Chinese people.
“China is not a democracy whose citizens are not entitled to vote, assemble or speak freely.” “To give General Secretary Xi Jinping such a title of ‘president,’ which he does not deserve, is to affix a false layer of democratic legitimacy to the CCP’s authoritarian rule.” USCC said.
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