Live and unfiltered: Kim Jong Un captivates South Koreans

Published
3
People watch a TV screen showing the live broadcast of President Moon Jae-in meeting Kim Jong Un at the border village of Panmunjom during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul. — AP
People watch a TV screen showing the live broadcast of President Moon Jae-in meeting Kim Jong Un at the border village of Panmunjom during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul. — AP

South Koreans watched as history unfolded on Friday and Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader they normally only see in heavily edited footage, walked across the border and had his every word broadcast live and unfiltered on airwaves across the country.

From train platforms to tech forums, South Korean took a pause from their normal routines to get a glimpse of Kim as he became the first North Korean leader to visit South Korean territory. Major South Korean television networks cancelled their usual programming for wall-to-wall coverage of the inter-Korean summit with President Moon Jae-in.

“I can’t believe I’m listening to the voice of Kim Jong Un. Someone I have only seen as JPG is speaking now,” South Korean Lee Yeon-su wrote on Twitter, referring to a common image format. She told the AP she watched the live footage at home.

It’s a dramatic change for South Koreans, who under the National Security Act are banned on threat of jail from accessing media considered pro-North Korean. Websites for the North’s official Korean Central News agency and Rodong Shinmun newspaper, which regularly publish propaganda images of Kim, are blocked in South Korea.

South Koreans used the rare opportunity of seeing raw footage of Kim to speculate on everything from his speech habits to his health. Some even said they found Kim cute.

“Most South Koreans probably heard his voice for the first time. I found his way of speaking friendly, like a guy living next door,” said Ryu Seok-woo, a reporter at a local news outlet who didn’t cover the summit.

Some noted that the reclusive leader, who rules his country unquestioned, seemed to drone on and on in his first speech. They speculated that he had never been stopped or interrupted when speaking before.

There was a moment many South Korean noted when Kim made an off-the-cuff comment about naengmyeon, cold buckwheat noodles that are a North Korean delicacy popular among South Koreans and are to be served at Kim and Moon’s dinner meeting.

“Pyongyang naengmyeon that came from afar. Ah, I shouldn’t say it’s from afar,” Kim said before the two leaders started their morning meeting.

Read: Symbolism on menu at Korea summit dinner

Kim appeared to be making a joke about the distance between the two countries. The remarks, which didn’t seem to fit with the intimidating image most South Koreans have of Kim, went viral on social media as people shared them in disbelief and even suggested he a future in comedy.

“I thought he had a sense of humor. He’s certainly different from his father’s generation,” said Lee Seung-won, an office worker. “I thought I would never see such scene before I die.”

As Kim walked a few hundred meters from the border and climbed some stairs to the Peace House where the summit is taking place, some South Koreans questioned whether the heavyset young leader was physically struggling.

Kim Jong Un signs a guest book watched by Moon Jae-in inside the Peace House on Friday. ─ AP
Kim Jong Un signs a guest book watched by Moon Jae-in inside the Peace House on Friday. ─ AP

When Kim was leaving a message in the guest book, his shoulders appeared to be moving up and down as if he was panting.

“He probably doesn’t walk a lot and seemed to be having a hard time,” homemaker Cho Jin-joo said, noting that such a common struggle made him feel real. “Before I found him intimidating on the news but today I felt like he was much more human,” she said.

Some were sympathetic to Kim.

“Ah, Kim Jong Un panting hard after walking that much. It strikes a chord with people who don’t like walking,” South Korean Kim Somi confirmed she said in a tweet.

Between the jokes and the big smiles Kim was cracking, some on social media and elsewhere said the rival leader looked cute.

“He was so different from what I saw on the news in the past. He looked friendly. I thought he looked like a teddy bear,” said office worker Yang Hae-ra, who watched the footage live on her phone.

Such comments raised the ire of others on social media, who thought it distracted from the fact that Kim is an authoritarian leader.

Opinion

Editorial

Fixing bond markets
Updated 01 Oct, 2026

Fixing bond markets

Pension funds, insurance companies, mutual funds, retail investors, and eventually, foreign investors must become bigger participants in the market.
Call centre rackets
01 Oct, 2026

Call centre rackets

A NUMBER of recent raids conducted by the authorities in different cities point to the growing threat fraudulent ...
Homeward bound
01 Oct, 2026

Homeward bound

FIVE months after Somali pirates captured an oil tanker carrying a 19-member multinational crew, Somali maritime...
Kashmir unresolved
Updated 30 Sep, 2026

Kashmir unresolved

The just solution lies in India addressing the issue through a trilateral dialogue involving the legitimate representatives of the Kashmiri people and Pakistan.
Water shortage
30 Sep, 2026

Water shortage

THAT the country is entering the Rabi season with an anticipated water shortage of nearly 25pc, the lowest carryover...
Young hearts
30 Sep, 2026

Young hearts

THE observance may have passed, but the message of World Heart Day should not fade with it. The occasion is a useful...