The following article is a column by Andrei Lankov, a professor at Kookmin University and a director at Korea Risk Group, which oversees NK News and NK Pro. Views expressed in opinion articles and columns are exclusively the author’s own and do not represent those of NK News.

2020 was a particularly peculiar year, and North Korea ended it in a particularly peculiar way. On the morning of New Year’s Day, the North Korean leader’s New Year’s Address – part of the country’s political traditionfor the last 70-odd years – was nowhere to be seen. It was replaced with