- [Presenter] North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un,
has been trying to build a new image for himself.
He's gotten a new wardrobe and lost some weight.
He's also been showing emotion.
(crowd cheering)
While still being the Commander-in-Chief,
who oversees epic missile launches.
- He's going for versatility.
North Korea's propaganda strategy
under Kim Jong-un are modernization and transparency.
- [Presenter] The shift comes as the regime
is facing a lot of challenges at home.
North Korean analysts say adapting the regime's propaganda
is one way to keep the message under control.
So we examine recent footage that shows Kim's efforts
to modernize what his predecessors did,
as he redefines what it means to be the leader
of one of the world's most isolated regimes.
Kim Jong-un is the third leader of North Korea
after his father and grandfather.
He took power in late 2011
when he was believed to be just 27 years old.
- [Rachel] Kim Jong-un started off
building his public image modeled on his grandfather.
- [Presenter] Rachel Lee is a former North Korea analyst
for the US government who now works for a website
that provides analysis about the regime.
Until recently, Kim Jong-un had been borrowing
from his grandfather's propaganda playbook.
- [Rachel] The way he likes to give public speeches.
When you see, Kim Jong-un going out
visiting places or giving inspections,
you see him mingling with people.
So when people see him, they're reminded of Kim Il-sung,
but in recent years, he's broken out of that shell
now and he's trying to build his own brand.
- [Presenter] And this rebranding
comes amid the country's mounting economic problems,
as a result of ongoing sanctions
and the pandemic lockdown.
Plus, there's been major flooding and crop failures
that have led to food shortages.
A state run South Korean think tank
estimates that the north needs more
than 5 million tons of food annually.
The last year it could have faced food shortages
of more than 1 million tons.
That food deficit means an average North Korean
is getting around 450 calories fewer
than what's recommended by the United Nations.
Lee says citizens won't believe the regime,
if all these issues are covered up.
- So, North Korea has really made an effort
to be more transparent, to be persuasive to the people,
and also to make the content more interesting.
- [Presenter] To do that, Kim's been attempting
to break the mold by trying new things.
Like in this highly edited video that showcases the launch
of what Pyongyang described as a next generation
intercontinental ballistic missile.
- [Rachel] Him walking out in front of a missile,
you know, that's something that you would see maybe
in a Mission Impossible movie.
- [Presenter] This is a big departure
from previous weapons tests,
where Kim often watched from inside a control room.
And the event was announced
by a news anchor describing what happened.
Lee says this kind of elaborate production
can drum up support for the military,
even amid questions about the regime's weapons capability.
About a week after the launch,
South Korean officials questioned whether the ICBM
was really new, saying it appeared to be
just a dressed up version of a predecessor.
And this stylized video could also have been produced
to mollify the North Korean public about a missile test
in mid-March that South Korea's military said had failed.
- They went out all the way
to make the video a lot more special
to kind of bending over backwards, right?
Overcompensating for what happened.
But if they continue to do this,
then maybe this is the beginning of a new trend.
- Pyongyang hasn't commented on the test
or the ICBM launch skepticism.
What's also changing is the clothing.
And Kim's various outfits are a stark contrast
to his father and grandfather.
They normally stuck to a uniform,
whether it was a suit and neck tie or Mao suits
which were popularized by communist China's first leader.
Kim has also allowed t-shirts that North Korea experts say
appeared to have his face emblazoned on it.
Like at this concert last fall.
- It's something that you see all the time in the west,
and maybe it was somebody's idea to become more modernized.
- [Presenter] Lee says this type
of casual iconography would never have happened
during the regime under Kim's father and grandfather,
because propaganda has always portrayed the leaders
as sacred and powerful godlike figures.
So this modernizing of content marks a turning point,
and could come from a desire for Kim
to reach a younger generation.
- [Rachel] They're more knowledgeable
about the outside world, a huge portion of the population
that has been exposed to dramas and movies,
hence the need to modernize content.
It has to evolve so that people keep tuning in
to national television.
- [Presenter] Another part of Kim's propaganda change
more transparency, especially about the food shortage.
This was also something that Kim's father
had to manage during his tenure.
At the time, there was no real acknowledgement
of its severity, even though as many as 1 million people
in North Korea had died.
- North Korean state media used terms
like food shortages and food problem.
You would see a more watered down account
of what was going on.
- [Presenter] Eventually the US and United Nations
stepped in to provide food aid
and helped to bring the famine to an end by the late 1990s.
But fast forward some 20 years,
and Kim Jong-un is going about it differently
by openly talking about the food situation
that the country faces today.
This documentary called the Great Year of Victory in 2021
aired on state media in February.
The narrator says the phrase food crisis,
something that North Korea analysts say
has never been uttered before in the country's propaganda.
(man speaking Korean)
While Kim has said, the country is investing
in agriculture and making progress on the food shortage,
he's also been physically showing citizens
that he understands their struggles.
Last June, he appeared at a party meeting
looking considerably thinner,
and news of his weight loss
was widely reported on state media.
- [Rachel] And also, you see Jim Jong-un
giving a speech and he was in tears,
and he was choking up as he talked
about the hardships that people had to go through.
(Kim speaking Korean)
- [Presenter] North Korea analysts say, it's hard to tell
if this new propaganda style is working,
and whether younger people are relating
to it more than earlier forms.
Ultimately, propaganda is not about
getting anyone's approval, but shaping
and controlling people's perception of the leadership,
especially during challenging times
as Kim enters the second decade of his rule.