North Korea Claims Kim Jong-un Lost Weight ‘Suffering’ for ‘the People’

North Korean state television aired a “documentary” on Tuesday called “2021: A Great Victorious Year” that claimed dictator Kim Jong-un lost a remarkable amount of weight because he was suffering so much for the people that “his body completely withered away.”

NK News, a watchdog site for North Korean media, noted the two-hour program on state-run KCTV did not directly comment on Kim’s surprising weight loss, which prompted much speculation about his health outside North Korea, and probably a good deal of very quiet curiosity among the ranks of his terrorized subjects. In years past, North Koreans were instructed to admire the bloated despot’s extra pounds and ignore his occasional limp, which might have been caused by gout from binge eating and drinking.

The dictatorship apparently decided not to portray Kim’s weight loss as the admirable product of better diet and exercise. Instead, the “2021” documentary praised Kim for overcoming the “worst-ever hardships” North Korea has faced, including a nationwide “food crisis,” and demanded sympathy for the toll his extraordinary efforts took upon his body.

“He showed us his fatherly side by doggedly braving snow, rain and wind while taking on the fate of the nation and people like his own children. His body completely withered away, and he showed his motherly side by greatly suffering and worrying to realize the dreams of the people,” the narrator intoned, while Kim was pictured clutching an umbrella and making his way slowly down a flight of stairs.

Later scenes showed a much happier dictator galloping around on horses and sunning himself on the beach, suggesting his health improved after he brilliantly solved all of North Korea’s problems.

One of those problems was a “food crisis” that North Koreans were largely forbidden to discuss until now. Kim was depicted holding a meeting in which he graced top officials with “important policy ideas in order to urgently stabilize the people’s lives and the tense food distribution situation and overcome the current food crisis with an emergency policy.”

Another quirk of the documentary noted by NK News is that it shows Kim holding some public meetings that were not reported during the course of the year, suggesting those photo ops were kept secret for “unclear” reasons until now.

Reuters noted Kim can be seen limping again in a few of the documentary’s scenes. Other footage includes “rare images of a new 80-story skyscraper and a large apartment district, as well as some clips and images of a defense expo in October and previous missile tests.”

Radio Free Asia (RFA) noted most of the North Korean elite did not lose any weight during the 2021 “food crisis,” and probably will not be losing any in 2022, as ships filled with luxury food for the ruling class are still arriving from China.

North Korea’s food shortages were greatly exacerbated by border shutdowns due to the pandemic, but shiploads of fruit, oil, and sugar for top officials are coming across the Yalu River under the control of the Ministry of State Security.

An official from a trading agency told RFA the ministry granted special permission for the imports so North Korean leaders could enjoy proper feasts during the Lunar New Year holiday. The shipments are unloaded quickly and covered by blue screens so the public cannot see the food arriving, but according to RFA’s source, starving residents of port towns have deduced the nature of the shipments and bitterly resent the special perks for high officials.

“The authorities closed off the border under the pretext of Covid-19 [Chinese coronavirus], but they have no qualms reopening maritime trade so they can get their holiday gifts,” a dockworker grumbled to RFA.