Un-sized does not fit all: Kim Jong Un wears baggy trousers as he walks the red carpet at the ceremony celebrating a construction project

North Korea’s rotund leader Kim Jong Un was pictured wearing exceptionally baggy trousers as he walked the red carpet at a ceremony this week.

The dictator waved to the adoring crowd as he arrived at the event in Pyongyang marking the completion of the second phase of a 10,000-home housing project.

He was then seen wearing his current favorite black leather bomber jacket as he used scissors to cut the red ribbon while standing on a large stage decorated with communist red ribbons and adorned with a gold hammer and sickle.

“Completion ceremony for 10,000 households second phase of Hwaseong district on April 16,” read the stage with yellow Korean text.

Below, hundreds of North Korean citizens waved brightly colored balloons and the country’s flag. Some were seen crying when they spotted their leader.

Kim is often spotted in wide trousers or ‘loonpants’.

It has been suggested in the past that the despot prefers baggy clothing to conceal his weight, which in the past was reported to have been 22 stone.

Others have suggested that his choice of clothing is a rejection of Western styles.

Some reports suggest that his various uniforms – which have been changed and modified over the years – are of his own design.

In 2019, Business Insider pointed out that some of his clothing choices resemble those of the late Chinese Chairman Mao, although there have been some signs of relaxation in recent years, such as his leather jacket.

‘Kim Jong Un has cool clothes. If he were from America, he would be one of those guys that we see in Portland, in Brooklyn, one of these hipster guys. He likes the vintage look and I can’t blame him for that,” said an analyst told Business Insider at the time.

Meanwhile, North Korean citizens are not allowed to wear a number of items of clothing. Last year it was reported that women were banned from wearing shorts because they were considered ‘capitalist fashion’ – although men can still wear them.

Kim’s appearance on Tuesday came days after Kim was spotted with a Korean pop star who was rumored in the past to be his mistress.

After leaving her role in North Korea’s premier girl group, the Moranbong Band, Hyon Song-wol now works in the dictator’s personal secretariat.

Last week she was spotted with Kim in Pyongyang, where she was seen glued to her phone while the other aides frantically took notes.

Now a retired spymaster says their relationship is more than professional, and that she and the despot have a love child.

Choe Su-yong, a former member of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) in neighboring South Korea, said the child’s name was Kim Il-bong.

Choe recently told the Korea Times that Kim Jong-un also has a legitimate son with his wife, Ri Sol-ju, but that the boy is too “pale and thin” for public life.

Speaking to the Chosun Ilbo newspaper, he described the contrast between the half-brothers.

He said: “The illegitimate son, Kim Il-bong, is stout, but the first son of Kim’s wife is so thin that he is described as pitiful in North Korean terms.”

According to the ex-spy, Kim Jong-un met Hyon Song-wol while he was still at school in Switzerland.

Choe said Hyon served the future tyrant and his sister, Kim Yo-jong, as a nanny and caretaker, but a relationship developed and continued upon their return to North Korea.

Kim’s father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il, disapproved of the match and ordered him to abandon it, according to a 2012 South Korean report.

But after his father’s death, “the son is believed to have rekindled the relationship,” the report said.

Michael Madden, founder of North Korea Leadership Watch, said there was good reason to believe the duo first bonded in Switzerland.

He said: ‘One thing we can say, I think, with a reasonably good degree of confidence in its accuracy, is that they had a close relationship when he was studying in Switzerland.

“What ended up happening was that members of these elite performing arts groups started living in their homes and caring for them.

“There is a very good chance that Hyon Song-wol lived with Kim Jong-un and Kim Yo-jong when they lived in Switzerland, or that she went to visit them.”

“We can say with certainty that they have a very close relationship,” he added.

The ribbon cutting also came after a report found that North Korea is placing surveillance cameras in schools and workplaces and collecting fingerprints, photos and other biometric information from its citizens in a technology-driven effort to keep even closer tabs on its population.

The state’s increasing use of digital surveillance tools, which combine equipment imported from China with domestically developed software, threatens to destroy many of the little spaces North Koreans have left to engage in private business activities, access foreign media and to secretly criticize their government, the researchers said. wrote.

But the isolated country’s digital ambitions have been hampered by poor electricity supply and poor network connectivity.

These challenges, and a history of reliance on human methods to spy on its citizens, mean that digital surveillance is not yet as ubiquitous as in China, according to the report, published by the North Korea-focused website 38 North.

The study’s findings are consistent with the widely held view that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is increasing efforts to strengthen state control over its citizens and promote loyalty to his regime.

These efforts were amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the North imposing strict border controls that were maintained for three years before cautiously reopening in 2023.

New laws and recent reports of harsher penalties indicate that the government is cracking down on foreign influence and imported media.

These are likely helped by fences and electronic monitoring systems installed at the border with China during the pandemic.