Unbadged N. Korean First Lady Disappears from View
By wchung | 02 May, 2025

Ri Sol-ju, the attractive young woman introduced as the wife of new N. Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has disappeared from public view since early September, prompting speculation as to the cause.

Ri was last seen in public on September 3 when she accompanied Kim on a visit to hear a military band. That occasion was the last of her 18 public appearances. The reason for her sudden disappearance may be her failure to wear a certain badge, according to the speculation of N. Korea watchers reports JoongAng Ilbo.

Ri, 23, had first caught the world’s notice on July 6 when she sat beside her husband at a musical performance that featured Disney characters, American pop standards and even footage from a Rocky movie. Despite her stylish attire, Ri was wearing a badge that appears to be de rigueur for all N. Korean officials on public occasions. The badge bears the visages of Kim Il-sung, the nation’s founder, and his son Kim Jong-il, the current ruler’s late father. Kim himself was wearing the badge as well.

At her second public appearance at a kindergarten on July 14 Ri was again seen wearing the badge like her husband.

But on July 25, the day state media identified her as Kim Jong-un’s wife, Ri was’t wearing the badge, according to a scan by JoongAng Ilbo of all photos released by N. Korean state media.

“Sometimes Ri wore a brooch instead of the badge,” said the source, speculating that Ri’s failure to wear the badge is the likely reason for her disappearance from public view. She had probably angered some high-ranking officials by letting her fashion sense get the better of her political sense, he believes. The badge is worn by all senior party and military officials, he points out.

“All adults should pin the badge on their clothes at all of state and public events,” said a North Korean defector who had held a high post in the Pyongyang regime. “If Ri violates this rule, even a first lady will not be easily forgiven.”

“There were some concerns about her liberal style among North Korean officials,” said a South Korean official. “So the matter of the badge could become a problem.”

It has now been 39 days since Ri last appeared in official state media. She wasn’t with her husband last Wednesday when he and a group of high-ranking military and party officials visited his father’s casket in the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang on the occasion of the 67th anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party.

Political fallout was seen in the US arising out of the failure of Barack Obama to wear a badge during the primaries leading up to the 2008 presidential elections. The issue first came to the media’s attention when a reporter asked him in October of 2007 why he didn’t wear a flag pin. Obama’s efforts to explain that a pin isn’t as important as more substantive manifestations of patriotism didn’t go over well. By the following May he had begun wearing a flag pin to every public event.