Portrait of another democratic nation: North Korea’s Kim Jong-un likes his picture with a gun

Meanwhile, not far from America, in the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea, a new portrait of Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un was unveiled. It shows him, looking away bored as if his Wi-Fi connection has temporarily gone down, in white military regalia. But what really catches the eye is what’s visible in the foreground of the picture: a pair of binoculars next to an assault rifle.

Like the rack of books on shelves behind him, the two objects on the table in front of Kim are blurred, perhaps for the purpose of telling the viewer, ‘Look up, you gun-loving pervert!’

Once again — and once we finally manage to take our eyes off the indistinct North Korean-made Type 58 rifle modelled on the Soviet AK-47 — we also notice how important it is for important world leaders to groom themselves, whether it be orange bouffants, flowing beards or, as in Kim’s case, a thatch of slick black hair squaring an otherwise facial circle.


The huge portrait of the leader with a cult following will hang in a corridor of the April 25 House of Culture, a theatre in Pyongyang originally and confusingly called the February 8 House of Culture.

In terms of the painting style, the artist has given the world a contemporary Post-Stalinist Realism classic. As for Kim himself, the North Korean marshal of the republic knows how to get a selfie taken.