How Kim Jong-un used Covid quarantine and propaganda to tighten control in North Korea From heir to power center, Ju-ae emerges From peace and development to loyalty and control How Kim's definition of prosperity changed Less talk of Pyongyang, more focus on Hwasong District Russia dependence looms This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

[A STUDY OF KIM JONG-UN 6] North Korea's approach to quarantine during the Covid-19 pandemic was brutally straightforward. Anyone displaying symptoms, arriving from overseas or coming into contact with either group was designated a "medical surveillance subject" and placed under isolation. "Quarantine is a polite way of putting it," one North Korean defector recalled in testimony obtained by Amnesty International and other human rights organizations. "People were simply rounded up, separated and locked away. There was no support. If they died, they died. They were left to fend for themselves." Another defector described isolation as little different from a death sentence. "The state had neither money nor medicine," the source said. "Being quarantined was practically the same as being dead. Those who survived, survived. Those who died were buried. That was how it was handled." Sources familiar with North Korean affairs said quarantine often led to death not only from disease but also from starvation. Some people reportedly died after being confined for extended periods with little access to food. Those caught trying to escape were sometimes confined by nailing doors shut from the outside. It was a period so severe that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un described it as the country's "greatest upheaval since its founding." Yet even as the crisis deepened, Kim rejected offers of foreign vaccine assistance. Instead, state propaganda promoted folk remedies, including drinking willow-leaf infusions three times a day. The harsh response reflected a broader shift in Kim's priorities after the collapse of the Hanoi summit in February 2019. For Kim, the failed negotiations with the United States after the 2019 Hanoi summit were more than a diplomatic setback. His immediate concern became restoring the supreme leader's authority after a public blow to his prestige. Rather than focusing on treatment or mitigation, the regime prioritized total control. Kim sought to reestablish himself as an unrivaled figure, one capable of surpassing not only foreign adversaries but also the legacies of his father and grandfather. That transformation is visible in the language of North Korea's state media. A joint analysis conducted by the JoongAng Ilbo and AI-based big data firm Speechlog examined all 137,513 articles published in the Rodong Sinmun, the North's ruling Workers' Party newspaper, between January 2016 and January 2026. The study analyzed more than 18 million words to trace changes in Kim's rhetoric and the regime's messaging. Because the Rodong Sinmun functions as North Korea's primary domestic propaganda outlet, its language reflects not what citizens want to hear but what Kim wants them to hear. One of the most notable findings involved the word suryong, or "Great Leader." During the period of summit diplomacy between Kim, U.S. President Donald Trump during his first term and then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in, from 2018 through February 2019, the term appeared 12,601 times in the Rodong Sinmun. Following the collapse of the Hanoi summit, the figure surged to 34,694 mentions between 2019 and 2022. The increase was significant, but the shift in meaning was even more telling. Before Hanoi, suryong referred exclusively to North Korea's founder Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) — Kim Jong-un's grandfather. Beginning in 2020, however, the title started to be applied to Kim Jong-un himself. Usage accelerated sharply after the Eighth Workers' Party Congress in January 2021. Kim Jong-il (1941-2011), Kim Jong-un's father, only received the title after his death. Kim Jong-un effectively granted it to himself at age 36. In doing so, he elevated himself into the ranks of his predecessors while simultaneously beginning to separate himself from them. The analysis divided Kim's rule into four distinct periods: the nuclear-focused years of 2016 and 2017; the summit diplomacy era from 2018 through February 2019; the post-Hanoi and Covid-19 period from 2019 to ...