[imText1]According to reports carried by Chosun Central News Agency, Kim Jong Eun greeted 2012, the first full year of his rule, with a visit to No. 105 Tank Division.
While there, Kim appeared in a number of commemorative images, including at a location for research into military matters, an electronic library, even thrusting a hand under the tap in the bathrooms to test the water.
Kim was accompanied by a group including two of the men who are seen as leading his supporting group, Army Chief of Staff Vice-Marshal Lee Young Ho and National Defense Commission Vice-Chairman Jang Sung Taek. General Political Bureau chief Kim Jeong Gak, who was last seen accompanying the hearse carrying Kim Jong Il on the 28th, and a number of other, lesser military figures were also in attendance.
This particular tank division is more widely known as ‘No. 105 Ryu Kyung Su Tank Division’, because, commanded by Ryu Kyung Su, it was the one which first occupied Seoul during the Korean War and raised the North Korean flag on the top of the central governmental building there. The number 105 is the number of the tank with which the unit advanced south.
The division was subsequently re-named by Kim Il Sung. Highly symbolic, the North Korean authorities also cite August 25th, 1960, when Kim and son Kim Jong Il carried out a joint onsite inspection of the division, as the birth of military-first politics.
The division, which is nowadays armed with the Soviet era T-55 tank, is supposedly a model of North Korean military ability, discipline and life. A similar visit was also the last officially reported public engagement Kim Jong Il undertook in 2010, sometime between Christmas and New Year.
As Kim’s first solo visit as supreme leader of North Korea, an external visit to a military site makes good propaganda sense. Kim was only elevated to supreme commander of the armed forces last week, and it is natural that the authorities want to make the young man look like an authority on military matters.
Kim Jong Eun also paid his first official visit to Keumsusan Memorial Palace during the scheduled visit, where he again paid his respects to Kim Jong Il. North Korea has been emphasizing that the leadership of Kim Jong Eun is mandated in part by the ‘dying injunctions’ of Kim Jong Il, and as such, paying his respects once again makes sense for the politically weak Kim Jong Eun regime.
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