South Korea's Yonhap agency reports that North Korea is no longer using the Juche calendar, a system for counting years since the birth of Kim Il-sung, the country's founder. This is to be another step to strengthen the cult of Kim Jong Un by breaking with the legacy of his predecessors.
According to the Juche calendar, 1912, the year in which Kim Il-sung, grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un, was born, is considered year one. This system was officially adopted in 1997, three years after Kim Il-sung's death, and was used along with the Gregorian calendar. The word “juche” literally means “self-reliance” and describes Kim Il-sung's broader political doctrine.
The Yonhap agency mentions, among others: an example of the party daily “Rodong Sinmun”, addressed mainly to domestic audiences. In both the printed and online versions of the newspaper, until Sunday the dates were written according to juche. This week only the Gregorian calendar is used.
Intensified efforts to glorify the third generation of Kims
In the agency's assessment, the discontinuation of this system after 27 years is seen as a reflection of Kim Jong Un's desire to strengthen his sense of leadership and “not rely on the legacy of his predecessors.”
“This appears to be part of Kim Jong Un's efforts to establish his own independent cult of personality, which has been visible since the beginning of this year,” said a South Korean Unification Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
At the end of May, Bloomberg noticed that Kim Jong Un's likeness was hung next to the portraits of his grandfather and father at the open Central Personnel School of the Workers' Party of Korea in Pyongyang.
In July, the Korean media published for the first time photos of officials wearing pins with the image of Kim Jong Un, which, according to Yonhap, indicated intensified efforts to glorify the third generation of the Kim family.
Main photo source: PAP/EPA/KCNA