Clothes maketh the man, Kim
IMAGE: NORTH KOREAN LEADER GOES FOR SOFTER LOOK
The light-grey suit and matching tie that North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un donned for his New Year’s address was likely carefully calculated to project a softer, more relaxed image to go with his surprise offer for talks with Seoul.
Departing from his usual black or navy suits, Kim gave his televised speech wearing blackrimmed glasses and slicked back hair, speaking fluently and rarely looking down to read as he raised the possibility of sending a delegation to the upcoming Winter Olympics in South Korea.
“In this New Year’s address, North Korea seems to have taken great pains with the image portrayed by Kim Jong-Un,” said an analysis by the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification after Kim’s speech.
“The change from the previous dark Maoist suits to a softer toned grey Western-style suit likely aimed to underpin peace, which Kim stressed in his address,” the institute said.
Kim’s style “reflected a relaxed state of mind” that likely resulted from his previous announcement that North Korea had achieved its nuclear ambitions, it said.
After a year dominated by fiery rhetoric and escalating tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme, Kim declared on Monday that his country was “a peace-loving and responsible nuclear power” and called for lowering military tensions and improving ties with the South.
Kim also said he was open to dialogue with Seoul, prompting South Korea yesterday to propose high-level talks between the two countries on January 9 at the border truce village of Panmunjeom.
Analysts said the North Korean leader’s speech showed more confidence compared to previous years, his old habit of swaying from side to side while making speeches nearly undetectable. – Reuters