North Korean leader Kim Jong Un turned 40, but there were no public festivities in Pyongyang, which fired artillery barrages into the sea and promised to increase its nuclear weapons. Kim Jong Un’s birthday has yet to be formally honored, in contrast to his late father, Kim Jong Il, and grandfather, Kim Il Sung, whose birthdays are two of North Korea’s most important holidays, occasionally marked with military parades.
North Korea’s national news agency issued an article on Kim Jong Un’s birthday hailing the leader’s massive construction initiatives over the last decade. It was also alleged that the North Korean leader took his daughter to a chicken farm.
Experts argue that Kim Jong Un may believe he is still too young to hold grandiose birthday celebrations, while some speculate that the lack of a public birthday blowout is related to minimizing attention to his late Japan-born mother.
Hong Min, an analyst at Seoul’s Korea Institute for National Unification said, “For Kim, it’s still probably politically burdensome to idolize himself as he’s still young and hasn’t accumulated much achievements.”
According to Kim Yeol Soo, an expert at South Korea’s Korea Institute for Military Affairs, it will take some time for Kim Jong Un’s birthday to become an official holiday since elderly members of the country’s ruling elite would still consider him too young.
Kim Jong Un may be concerned about attracting unwelcome attention to his mother, according to Park Won Gon, a professor at Seoul’s Ewha Womans University.
“The fact his mother came from Japan is his biggest weak point that undermines his legitimacy of the Paektu bloodline,” he said, adding, “When Kim Jong Un’s birthday becomes an official holiday, he won’t still publicize details about his birth.”