Kim Jong Un,
TIME’s 2012 Person of the Year
The US weekly TIME announced
after summing up the events of 2012 that Kim Jong Un headed the short
list of the 2012 Person of the Year. The newsmagazine picked by
online voting the persons who distinguished themselves in 2012 in the
political, economic, military, cultural and other sectors of state
administration and social life. The leader of the DPRK was voted the
2012 Person of the Year by an overwhelming majority.
In the Spotlight of the World
Never before in history has been
recorded such a statesman as the Korean leader who attracted
worldwide attention upon entering the political arena.
He was thrown into the limelight
of the international community in September 2010, when at the Third
Conference of the Workers’ Party of Korea he was elected Vice
Chairman of the Military Commission of its Central Committee. The
mass media vied to convey the news and CNN ranked him among the Top
Tens.
According to the search result on
Google for access to information about Kim Jong Un during the ten
days after the demise of Chairman Kim Jong Il of the DPRK National
Defence Commission in December 2011, there were 67.4 million hits, or
some 230 000 an hour, in English version. Estimated with the
inclusion of the number of hits in non-English versions, it would not
be hard to perceive the extraordinary concern of the international
community about the young Korean leader.
The youngest leader who attracted
the greatest attention in the shortest period—this was the gist of
the comments in the press.
In 2012 the major media of the
world designated him as the notable person of the year. TIME featured
his photograph on the cover of its issue for the last week of
February.
Brilliant Political Activities
“Brilliant” does not suffice
to define Kim Jong Un’s political activities in 2012.
On the first day of the year he
inspected the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su Guards 105th Tank
Division of the Korean People’s Army, the unit associated with the
activities of President Kim Il Sung, founding father of socialist
Korea, and Chairman Kim Jong Il, guardian of the socialist cause.
All the year round he was on his
inspection trips around the army, navy, air and anti-aircraft, and
strategic rocket units.
These trips are noteworthy as
they were not made on ordinary days. In August when the US and south
Korean armies were in the throes of a joint war game Kim Jong Un made
his way to Jangjae Islet in the southwestern front on board a small
wooden vessel unescorted. The news was a great surprise as the islet
was a danger spot within a stone’s throw of Yonphyong Island which
saw an exchange of fierce artillery firing between the north and the
south of Korea in November 2010. As the next leg of his trip he
inspected a unit defending the nearby Mu Islet, where he ordered with
a resolute tone that if the enemy dared fire a shell to the DPRK’s
territory amid its bungled military action, the unit must not
restrict it to a local war in the southwestern front but lead it to a
sacred war for national reunification.
The personality of the Korean
leader, who has inherited Chairman Kim Jong Il’s Songun politics,
matchless courage and pluck, left a deep impression on the outside
world.
In a year he made pubic over ten
works illumining the road ahead of the Korean people, including Let
Us March Forward Dynamically towards Final Victory, Holding Higher
the Banner of Songun (April 15), On Bringing About a
Revolutionary Turn in Land Administration in Line with the Demands
for Building a Thriving Socialist Country (April 27) and Let
Us Step Up the Building of a Thriving Country by Applying Kim Jong
Il’s Patriotism (July 26).
The Korean leader set it as his
priority task to achieve economic prosperity and improve the people’s
standard of living, giving field guidance at factories, enterprises,
construction sites and cultural service facilities. He visited time
and again such construction projects as Changjon Street known as a
hub of luxury dwellings for ordinary citizens, Rungna People’s
Pleasure Park including the dolphinarium, the alpa mare, the minigolf
course and the amusement park, and Ryugyong Health Complex with
bathrooms, hairdresser’s, saunas and a fitness centre. Literally,
he spared no trouble to provide the citizens with the best conditions
for their cultural life.
This year a series of events were
arranged on his own initiative: in April the military parade in
celebration of the centenary of the birth of President Kim Il Sung;
in June the celebrations marking the 66th anniversary of
the Korean Children’s Union; in July the celebrations marking the
59th anniversary of the victory in the great Fatherland
Liberation War; in August the Youth Day celebration conference; in
October the celebrations of the anniversary of the revolutionary
schools; and in November the celebration of Mother’s Day.
Gao Haorong, a scholar at the
World Problems Study Centre under the Xinhua News Agency in China,
characterized these celebrations as an “unprecedentedly extensive
scale comprising all citizens ranging from babbling children to
grey-haired people.” Kim Jong Un attended most of the celebrations,
delivering speeches or sending letters, posing for a photograph with
the participants and sending gifts.
There are other impressive
episodes showing the harmonious ties between the leader and his
people.
After the completion of the
construction of Changjon Street he visited the new flats of workers
and teachers and toasted them. When seeing children, he held them in
his warm embrace and stroked their cheeks, his benevolent image
touching the heartstrings of the people. This year he took measures
to supply the newly-harvested fruits and fresh fish to kindergartens
and nurseries on a preferential basis. He also read the naïve
letters addressed to him by children and autographed them giving his
blessings for their rosy future.
Kim Jong Un is the father of all
the Korean people. This year he adopted a series of steps for the
benefit of the people: the promulgation of the law on enforcing the
universal 12-year compulsory education; the construction of the
Breast Tumour Institute of the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital and the
conversion of a facility attached to the army into a fitness centre
for civilian use. Mass cultural activities gained in scope and a hot
wind of sports swept all over the country. All the people are full of
conviction and optimism as they are marching forward towards the goal
of building a thriving nation.
Indeed, Kim Jong Un made the most
brilliant achievements in all sectors of state administration and
social life.
The Korean leader will attract
more attention of the international community.
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