One size does not fit all: Kim Jong Un wears baggy pants while walking red carpet at ceremony to commemorate construction project

North Korea’s burly ruler Kim Jong Un has been photographed wearing exceptionally baggy pants while walking the red carpet at a ceremony this week.

The dictator waved to adoring crowds as he arrived at the event in Pyongyang to mark the completion of the second phase of a 10,000-unit housing development.

He was then seen wearing his favorite black leather bomber jacket as he used scissors to cut the red ribbon while standing atop a large podium, decorated with communist red ribbons and adorned with a golden hammer and sickle.

“Hwaseong District Second Phase Completion Ceremony for 10,000 Households on April 16,” read Korean text in yellow on the podium.

Below were hundreds of North Korean citizens waving brightly colored balloons and the country’s flag. Some were seen crying upon seeing their leader.

Kim has often been seen sporting baggy pants or “crazy pants.”

It has been suggested in the past that the despot prefers baggy clothing to help hide his weight, which in the past was reported to be 22 kilos.

Others have suggested that her choice of clothing is a rejection of Western styles.

Some reports have suggested that their various uniforms, which have changed and adapted over the years, are of their own design.

In 2019, Business Insider noted that several of his clothing choices resembled those worn by China’s late Chairman Mao, although in recent years there have been some signs of relaxation, such as his leather jacket.

‘Kim Jong Un has great clothes. If he were from the United States, he would be one of those guys we see in Portland, in Brooklyn, one of these hipster guys. He likes vintage style and I don’t blame him,” said one analyst. he told Business Insider at the time.

Meanwhile, North Korean citizens are prohibited from wearing various items of clothing. Last year, it was reported that women had been banned from wearing shorts because they were considered “capitalist fashion”, although men are still allowed to wear them.

Kim’s appearance on Tuesday came days after Kim was spotted with a Korean pop star who was previously rumored to be his lover.

After leaving her position in North Korea’s main girl group, the Moranbong Band, Hyon Song-wol now works in the dictator’s personal secretariat.

Last week she was spotted with Kim in Pyongyang, where she was seen glued to her phone while other attendees frantically took notes.

Now, a retired spymaster says their relationship is more than professional and that she and the despot have a love child.

Choe Su-yong, a former National Intelligence Service (NIS) official in neighboring South Korea, said the boy was named Kim Il-bong.

Choe recently told the Korea Times that Kim Jong-un also has a legitimate son with his wife, Ri Sol-ju, but that the child is too “pale and thin” for public life.

Speaking to the Chosun Ilbo newspaper, he described the contrast between the half-siblings.

He said: “The illegitimate son, Kim Il-bong, is robust, but the first son born to Kim’s wife is skinny to the point of being described in North Korean terms as pitiful.”

According to the former spy, Kim Jong-un met Hyon Song-wol when he was still at school in Switzerland.

Choe said Hyon served the future tyrant and his sister, Kim Yo-jong, as a nanny and caretaker, but a relationship was formed that continued upon her return to North Korea.

Kim’s father and predecessor, Kim Jong-il, disapproved of the marriage and ordered him to break it up, according to a 2012 South Korean report.

But after his father’s death, “the son is believed to have rekindled the relationship,” according to the report.

Michael Madden, founder of North Korea Leadership Watch, said there was good reason to believe the duo first came together in Switzerland.

He said: “I think one thing we can say with quite confidence in its accuracy is that they had a close relationship when he was studying in Switzerland.

‘What ended up happening was that members of these elite performing arts groups went and lived in the house with them, and looked after them and cared for them.

“There is a good chance that Hyon Song-wol resided with Kim Jong-un and Kim Yo-jong when they lived in Switzerland, or that he went to visit them.”

“We can say pretty confidently that they have a very close relationship,” he added.

The ribbon cutting also came after a report found that North Korea is placing surveillance cameras in schools and workplaces and collecting fingerprints, photographs and other biometric information of its citizens in a technology-driven effort to monitor to its population even more closely.

The state’s growing use of digital surveillance tools, which combine equipment imported from China with locally developed software, threatens to erase many of the small spaces that North Koreans have left to engage in private business activities, access foreign media, and criticize secretly from his government, according to researchers. wrote.

But the isolated country’s digital ambitions have to contend with poor power supply and low network connectivity.

Those challenges, and a history of relying on human methods to spy on its citizens, mean that digital surveillance is not yet as widespread as in China, according to the report, published by the North Korea-focused website 38 North.

The study’s findings align with widely held views that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is stepping up efforts to tighten state control over his citizens and promote loyalty to his regime.

These efforts were boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the North imposed strict border controls that were in place for three years before a cautious reopening in 2023.

New laws and recent reports of harsher punishments suggest the government is cracking down on foreign influence and imported media.

This is likely to be helped by the fences and electronic surveillance systems installed on the border with China during the pandemic.