North Korean media this year hardly used the term “Day of the Sun,” the name for the holiday marking the birthday of the country’s late founder, Kim Il Sung, sparking interest as to why, with rumors about the reason circulating even among North Koreans themselves.

Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a Daily NK source in South Hamgyong Province said that in Hamhung, “there were student martial arts demonstrations and flower basket presentation ceremonies like in other years, but the term Day of the Sun was used less frequently, sparking talk among residents.”

In North Korea, Kim Il Sung was called “the Sun.” The authorities named his Apr. 15 birthday the Day of the Sun in 1997 and have lavishly commemorated it as the nation’s biggest holiday.

However, this year, the North Korean media used the terms “Apr. 15” and “April Holiday” instead, sparking incredulity among locals.

In response, people reportedly whispered whether Kim Jong Un had replaced Kim Il Sung as the new “Sun.”

News reports and propaganda occasionally referred to the younger Kim as the “Sun of Juche Korea,” but many locals speculate that the current leader may have assumed the title of “Sun” in earnest with the disappearance of the “Day of the Sun,” the source said.

According to the source, a 30-something Hamhung resident said the authorities appear to be “inculcating the idea that Kim Jong Un is our Sun little by little,” but that people like himself were lukewarm about “having yet another Sun.”

Another Hamhung resident in their 50s said they believed Kim Jong Un had replaced Kim Il Sung as the “Sun,” but “few people care if he’s the Sun or not.”

“People have to look up to him and call them the ‘Sun’ on their own. What use will it be as long as they force people to call him the Sun,” he said. “Who’s going to follow a Sun who makes people tighten their belts even more when they are starving? How can you be the Sun when you provide no sunshine?”

“It appears they’ve been preparing to call Kim Jong Un the ‘Sun’ for quite some time,” the source said. “Isn’t the situation such that it would be normal to call Kim Jong Un the Sun, with them even creating mosaic murals of him? However, people wish he would become a leader who gives water to people dying of thirst before he becomes the Sun.”

Meanwhile, an official from South Korea’s Ministry of Unification said North Korea was intentionally replacing or erasing the use of the term Day of the Sun compared to the past and that the ministry “provisionally believes the name of the holiday has changed judging from several pieces of circumstantial evidence witnessed during Kim Il Sung’s birthday this year.”

The mainstream opinion regarding North Korea’s failure to use the term Day of the Sun this year is that the authorities are trying to tamp down excessive mystification of Kim Il Sung and remove Kim Jong Un from the afterglow of his predecessors so that he could stand on his own.

Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler. 

Daily NK works with a network of sources living in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. Their identities remain anonymous for security reasons. For more information about Daily NK’s network of reporting partners and information-gathering activities, please visit our FAQ page here.

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