North Korea to boost Kim Jong-un’s cult status with new monument

North Korea is to construct a monument honouring dictator Kim Jong-un, his father and grandfather, on the country’s highest mountain, in a further sign that the young autocrat is intent on building his own personality cult.

News of the new statue on Mount Paektu, dedicated to the self-obsessed despot, his father Kim Jong Il, and grandfather, Kim Il Sung, was announced this week on state-controlled newswire, KCNA, in a statement by the enigmatically named “international preparatory committee”.

The three generations of leaders, known as the “Sun of Mankind” were “enjoying the boundless admiration of the world’s progressive peoples,” it said.

Although the reclusive state has built many statues depicting Kim Il Sung, the first supreme leader of modern day North Korea, this would be the first major public monument venerating the current ruler, who assumed power in 2011.

“It might indicate that the personality cult of Kim Jong-un is beginning to take shape, even though frequently it appears that the young leader pays less attention to such matters than his father and grandfather,” Dr Andrei Lankov, a Korea specialist at Seoul’s Kookmin university told NK News.

The development of a cult of personality has been a key strategy of the Kim dynasty in order to maintain their iron grip over North Korea and secure their position in national mythology.

Mount Paektu, an active 9000ft volcano on the border with China, is considered a spiritual home by North Koreans, who refer to it as “the sacred mountain of the revolution.”

According to North Korea’s official version of history, Kim Jong-un’s father was born in a primitive hut on the slopes of Mount Paektu, cementing the family’s legitimacy to govern. The “Paektu blood line” remains a crucial part of the Kim dynasty legend.

However, Soviet records actually identify Kim Jong Il’s birthplace as a Russian military camp, where his father was stationed during World War II.

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