The Image of Young Leader Kim Jong Un via ”The Shortcut” by Kim Dae Seong: Understanding Typical Factor of Political Culture in North Korea

Abstract

Since the year 2010 when North Korea Kim Jong Il's health condition was confirmed fatal, Kim Jong Un (born in 1984) became known as the next legitimate successor and political leader of his family. From 2011, giant media enterprises around the world were attracted by the question upon the newly risen young leader's pattern of leadership in one of the most reclusive and secretive countries of the globe. In the North Korea, the image of the top leader of its polity is known to be built in extremity by which the leader plays as the utmost guardian who is able to deliver guidance and offer protection and at the same time represents the undefeatable status of the political entity desired by North Korean thinktanks. Published in 2014 in North Korea, translated and introduced to the Vietnamese public by Vietnam Writers' Association in 2020, The Shortcut by Kim Dae Seong proposed an interesting perspective of ``the insiders'' on deciphering the image of young leader Kim Jong Un which is totally different from the normality projected by Western medias. This paper is written primarily on the available source in The shortcut to argue the founding forces and factors of a young leader with heated devotion whilst being ripenly mature to exhibit unconditional love for his fervent followers. In the same lights, the work also depicts North Korea's views on national domestic policy which tends to make a shift from ``Military First'' politics (seongun jeongchi) to the inclusion of ``all for the advance of high-end technology'' strategies. In addition, this research also illustrates and interprets different aspects of adopting the thoughts of Confucianism in North Korean political culture from what normally known elsewhere in other East Asian countries.