Characteristics of Kim Jong-un’s leadership: analyzing the tone of official North Korean media

Figures & data

Table 1. Incidence of keywords in Kim Jong-un’s New Year’s day addresses (2013–2019).

	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
Kim Il-sung or Kim Jong-il	33	17	15	11	10	7	0
Last Instructions [Yuhun]	4	1	0	2	0	0	0
Socialism	18	12	11	16	12	22	32
Juche	13	3	7	15	12	14	9
Songun	6	3	3	2	1	0	0
Byeongjin	0	1	2	0	0	3	1
People’s Army	12	11	14	10	6	4	4
Nuclear	0	6	4	3	5	22	2
Rocket	0	0	0	0	2	3	0
Satellite	4	0	1	1	2	0	0
Imperialist	1	2	1	0	2	0	0
Peace	7	9	6	9	6	10	25
Unification	22	14	18	27	17	12	7
Economy	24	15	16	17	18	21	38
Technology	8	12	8	10	6	8	5
Strong and Prosperous Nation [Kangseongkukka]	12	9	4	8	0	0	0
Sanctions	0	0	1	0	2	3	3
Self-Rehabilitation [Jaryeokkaengsaeng]	0	0	0	0	2	2	3
Life of the People	6	7	5	5	4	3	3
Electricity	1	5	3	4	7	10	9
Family	1	1	2	1	0	1	2
Sports	3	10	4	5	2	3	3

Prepared by the author based on Rodong Sinmun. Instances of “Kim Il-sung” and “Kim Jong-il” include words such as “Great Leader　” and “Great General.” “Nuclear” is included only in the context of nuclear weapons, and “unification” only in the context of reunification with the South.