‘Captain North Korea?’ Soldier in tight blue outfit at military event generates social media buzz
- The soldier posed for a photo with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at a military exhibition, with observers speculating he could be a parachutist
- Social media users likened him to a superhero, human cannonball or rocket man, and made comparisons to the Captain America character
They all mostly wore olive green uniforms, the most common colour for North Korean military uniforms. Only two of them wore different colours – the one in the blue outfit and the other in a navy-blue uniform, which is not that unusual. Kim wore a dark suit.
Some Twitter users in South Korea, the US and elsewhere joked about his appearance, saying he looks like a “human cannon ball”, or the North Korean equivalent of Captain America.
Others said he looked like a “superhero”, a “captain DPRK” – the official acronym for North Korea – or a member of the non-existent North Korean space forces.
North Korean state media did not identify the man. But Jeffrey Lewis, an expert at Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, tweeted that “It seems he’s the parachutist”.
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Other North Korean photos showed Kim watching a group of jets flying in a formation during an air show ahead of the exhibition.
The official Korean Central News Agency said a “top notch parachutist showed landing skills, fluttering red party flag in the [October] sky” before the exhibition’s opening ceremony.
Photos of an earlier air show in North Korea showed parachutists wearing similar blue tight outfits.
Meanwhile, in what analysts said may be a first, a member of an orchestra performing at the event was spotted wearing a T-shirt with the face of Kim Jong-un, according to video footage from state media.
An orchestra conductor was seen wearing the white T-shirt with Kim’s face printed in black and white on the front at a ceremony to mark the opening of the defence exhibition, Korean Central TV Broadcasting Station showed in footage broadcast on Tuesday.
“It is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for North Korea to manufacture clothing with a Kim leader’s face on it,” said Rachel Minyoung Lee, an analyst for 38 North, a US-based programme that tracks North Korea.
North Koreans routinely wear badges with images of the country’s leaders, but the photos, paintings and other imagery are treated very carefully in a country that idolises the Kim family which has ruled for three generations.
“The Kim leaders’ portraits and photos are sacred in North Korea,” Lee said. “They must not be scribbled on, folded, or damaged in any other way. In that vein, I imagine the T-shirt worn by the performers was for that one special event, not to be worn and washed in daily life.”
The defence exhibition showcased an array of North Korean weapons, but also included paintings and other images of Kim.
Additional reporting by Reuters
