Cases Where Stalin, Putin Also Shed Tears Revealed
'Kim Jong Un's Tears' Due to Declining Birth Rate
Kim Jong-un, the General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, recently drew attention from foreign media for shedding tears in an official public appearance. It is rare for dictators to show tears, which is why the fact that Kim, the North Korean dictator, cried attracted interest.
The American economic media outlet Business Insider reported on the 10th (local time) that "Kim was seen shedding tears during a speech broadcast through state media recently," noting that this was one of several instances where he cried in front of the people.
On the 3rd of this month, during the 5th National Mothers' Conference held in Pyongyang, Kim was shown wiping his tears with a handkerchief while listening to a report by Ri Il-hwan, a secretary of the Workers' Party, on North Korean state-run Korean Central Television. The reason Kim showed tears at that time was due to the decline in North Korea's birth rate. The total fertility rate in North Korea has steadily decreased from 1.885 in 2014 to 1.790 last year.
Business Insider evaluated that Kim's tears are very unusual for a dictator, stating that there are very few dictators known to have shown tears in front of their subjects.
Among dictators, there are rumors that Joseph Stalin, the former General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, often showed tears in private settings, and Business Insider introduced that Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, shed tears of emotion at a rally attended by about 100,000 supporters immediately after the March 2012 presidential election, where he was running for a third term.
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