North rallies people behind leader Kim amid lingering tensions

SEOUL, Jun 29, 2020, The Korea Herald. North Korea on Monday called on its people to rally behind leader Kim Jong-un amid lingering tensions on the peninsula to mark the fourth anniversary of Kim’s rise to chairman of the State Affairs Commission, the highest leadership institution there, The Korea Herald reported.

The post was established in 2016 as part of branding the communist regime as a legitimate member of the international community. As chairman, Kim undertook a series of diplomatic breakthroughs including the historic Washington-Pyongyang summit two years later in 2018.

“Continuing threat from the hostile forces aims to break down the solidarity between the party and the people and sabotage our system, in addition to destroying our economy,” the state-run newspaper said in an editorial Monday.

Leader Kim, described as the “dazzling sun,” has boosted the regime’s power and status amid the worst times, putting forth the “people-first” ideology, and the unshakable unity among the people has grown into a force challenged by none, according to the mouthpiece of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party.

While the state media went on idolizing Kim for an extended length, inter-Korean relations are far from rosy, as the two Koreas have yet to find a compromise over the controversial anti-Pyongyang leaflets defectors here had sent there.

Pyongyang’s demolition of an inter-Korean office was a culmination of the tensions hike, with Seoul warning of action on further aggression from the communist regime.

By Choi Si-young