Kim Jong-un is ‘a gift from heaven’ and an 'aggressive' tank driver, says new biography
Kim Jong-un is an “unusually bold and courageous” leader who is “a gift from heaven”, according to a new biography of the North Korean dictator.
In a close echo of the propaganda that was used to keep the North Korean people loyal to his father and grandfather when they ruled the nation, the new book, titled “Kim Jong-un: A Great Man”, says he is a master of everything that he sets his mind to.
Mr Kim has “insightful foreknowledge and scientific analytical capabilities”, the book declares, according to the Chosun Ilbo newspaper, and possesses “a heroic and manly character and disposition, proficient in all things”.
The leader is also described as a capable equestrian, a fearless sailor and an “aggressive” tank driver who “tightly grips the control stick and pushes the steel horse like storms and gales”.
Mr Kim’s “boldness and audacity cannot be matched by any mortal”, the book gushes, adding that he is “a gift from heaven” who is also “perfect and entrancing”.
Earlier propaganda had also played up the North Korean leader’s military prowess, saying he had proved to be an expert marksman from the tender age of 3 who had “demolished 10 targets one second apart”. He then wrote poetry in Chinese and has mastered no fewer than seven languages.
The propaganda continues the North’s tradition of ascribing unlikely events to its leaders and fanning their cults of personality.
Party literature claims that Kim Jong-il, the present dictator’s father, was born in a humble cabin in 1941 on the slopes of Mount Baekdu, was foretold by an unseasonal swallow, was heralded by a double rainbow and “a bright star lit up the sky”. Historians believe that he was actually born in a refugee camp in Russia.
Nevertheless, state media insist that he was able to walk at three weeks, was talking at eight weeks, wrote 1,500 books in his three years at Kim Il-sung university, from where he graduated in 1964, and penned six full operas in two years - “all of which are better than any in the history of music”, his biography proclaims.
Kim Jong-il was also a master of cinema - his work was heavily influenced by his love for “Friday the 13th” and “Rambo” - and the sporting arena. According to his biography, he first hefted a golf club in 1994, at North Korea’s only golf course, and immediately shot a 38-under par round that included no fewer than 11 holes in one.”
The release of the book coincides with Kim Jong-un being awarded a number of new titles by the Central Committee of the Workers Party and the Supreme People’s Assembly.
The new positions have been bestowed on the third member of the Kim family to rule the country since 1945 in order to shore up his standing with the North Korean people after he failed to convince President Donald Trump to ease sanctions on his regime during their summit in Hanoi in February.
The additional titles include “Supreme Representative of the People”, which has caused a degree of concern in the South as it implies that Mr Kim now sees himself as head of all the people of the Korean Peninsula and is in line with his regime’s stated ambition of reunifying the two nations, by force if necessary.
