North Korea’s cult of personality has entered a new phase by elevating the portrait of Kim Jong Un next to that of his grandfather and father, showing him in a similar status as its two former leaders regarded as demigods at home.
Photos released by official media Wednesday showed Kim speaking to officials at a classroom of the new Central Cadres Training School under the portraits of himself, state founder Kim Il Sung and his father Kim Jong Il. The school will serve as the "highest institute” for training cadres of the ruling Workers’ Party, the Korean Central News Agency said.
"It marks the first time the North Korean official media has shown portraits of the three leaders hung together,” South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which manages relations with Pyongyang, said in a statement. It was not immediately clear if the three portraits were being displayed side by side in other places, such as in homes nationwide.