After a summer filled with flaming rockets and an earth-shaking nuclear blast, North Korea’s state media is portraying Kim Jong Un as a leader who has temporarily traded weapons for workshops.
The new portrayal appears designed to build domestic support by delivering on promises to develop the economy alongside the nuclear programme and to reassure citizens amid tightening international sanctions.
State media photos released on Wednesday showed Kim examining equipment at a tractor factory, test driving one of the vehicles and laughing with workers, the latest in a stream of photos in the past two months depicting a smiling Kim visiting farms and factories that make shoes, cosmetics, trucks.