Top North Korean officials wore badges featuring Kim Jong Un’s portrait for the first time at a major party meeting this week, a development that experts said reflects expanding efforts to fortify the leader’s cult of personality in his 12th year of rule.

Photos published in the party-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Sunday showed officials delivering speeches at the mid-year plenum in Myohyangsan, northeast of Pyongyang, while wearing the Kim Jong Un badges, rather than the customary badges showing one or both of his predecessors.

North Koreans of all stripes have long been required to wearbadges depicting former leaders