It’s full steam ahead for Kim Jong-un as North Korea’s all-time Supreme Leader, eclipsing even Great Leader Kim Il Sung and Dear Leader Kim Jong-il. From the Daily NK:
North Korea has steadily built out the legal scaffolding of Kim Jong Un’s one-man rule since the Ninth Party Congress, the Workers’ Party of Korea’s most important gathering, held once every five years. Two pieces of evidence make this especially clear, beginning with the constitution itself. Recent amendments erased references to Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il from the document. That change effectively placed Kim Jong Un at the pinnacle of constitutional authority in his own right. State power is now so concentrated around him that the document could reasonably be called the “Kim Jong Un constitution.”
North Korea framed 2024 as the year its “Kim Jong Un era” truly began, emphasizing a shift from “Kim Jong Il’s Korea” to “Kim Jong Un’s Korea.” By 2025, state media had gone further, promoting what it called the “great era of Kim Jong Un” and elevating him as the country’s most accomplished supreme leader. Viewed against this trajectory, Kim’s consolidation of power at the 2026 Ninth Party Congress was, in a sense, already foreshadowed. The congress simply locked his leadership authority into the state’s governing norms….
As supreme leader, Kim Jong Un’s greatness must be continuously demonstrated through his ideas and his leadership. That means “Kim Jong Un’s thought” must be learned and internalized, not only through propaganda but repeatedly in classrooms as well.
Making that internalization habitual through education has become a particular priority for North Korean authorities recently, and schools are no exception. The 15th National Teachers’ Congress, which opened Sept. 2, should be understood in this light. North Korean state media described the gathering as aimed at implementing the “education revolution” laid out at the Ninth Party Congress. Kim Jong Un himself used his remarks at the event to call for a fundamental overhaul of the school system.
One central goal is strengthening ideological education focused on Kim Jong Un throughout North Korea’s 12-year compulsory education system. Since 2013, North Korea has built three dedicated courses into its regular curriculum. Primary school students study “The Childhood of the Dearly Beloved Marshal Kim Jong Un.” Junior middle school students take “The Revolutionary Activities of the Dearly Beloved Marshal Kim Jong Un.” Senior middle school students study “The Revolutionary History of the Dearly Beloved Marshal Kim Jong Un.”
I think we get the picture.
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