It’s generally extremely rare for North Korean’s exclusive state media to recognize any potential health concerns that relate to its ‘supreme leader’, Kim Jong Un. In recent days, a few interesting interviews were published that suggested that citizens were devastated to see the surprising weight loss that Kim Jong Un has experienced while conducting his business in the public eye while remaining as leader of North Korea.
The state media within North Korea has traditionally avoided publishing this type of content, so the significance of it is currently unclear, but it’s certainly unique and unexpected for the dozens of agencies that observe North Korea’s internal actions.
While it may remain entirely unclear what the purpose of publishing this content is, there’s no doubt that national security and international surveillance agencies will continue to monitor the state media’s publishing to try and learn more.
In recent years, the American-DPRK relationship had significantly improved since President Obama left office in 2016. Trump even visited to meet Kim Jong Un in two separate summits before ultimately declaring his North Korean policy a success.
Biden’s administration has struggled to keep up the momentum that the Trump administration created on this particular foreign policy issue, but keeping a close eye on North Korean state media may provide an opportunity for Biden’s administration to learn more about how to interact with the North Korean government and more importantly, Kim Jong Un, himself.
