Why Kim Jong-un keeps crying

Crying in public is something we tend to associate with the North Korean people rather than their rulers ­– who are often described as having a near god-like status. Who can forget, following the death of Kim Jong-il in 2011, how the streets of Pyongyang were lined with weeping mourners? So perhaps it was surprising to see Kim Jong-un crying in public this week, in a televised announcement to the mothers of North Korea. But while this may seem perplexing, the Supreme Leader’s message was as clear as ever: that loyalty to the Kim regime is paramount.

Kim was speaking at North Korea’s National Conference of Mothers. As this week’s meeting began – the first since 2012 – North Korean state media lauded how the women selected to attend the event were ‘heroines who gave birth to many children’, responsible for ‘beefing up national power’ to maintain the ‘harmony and prosperity of the large socialist family.’