Kim Jong-un greeted by ‘stormy cheers’ as he attends Lunar Year concert

North Korean leader was sitting near an aunt making her first public appearance in two years

Kim Jong-un attends a ruling party meeting in January (AP)

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol Ju were greeted with “stormy cheers” from the audience at a Lunar New Year concert in Pyongang on Tuesday, where he was extolled for heralding a “new era” of national power, according to state media reports.

The Korean Central News Agency said the audience at the capital’s massive Mansudae Art Theatre appreciated that Kim was “ushering in on this land a new world and a new era when the people’s ideals and happiness and desire for building a powerful country are comprehensively translated into reality”.

Artists performed songs and dances that demonstrated the “single-minded unity” of North Korean people and their devotion to build a socialist country “to be envied by the world”, the KCNA added.

Footage showed Kim and Ri smiling and talking while sitting near Kim Kyong Hui, the leader’s aunt who was making her first public appearance in two years. Kim Kyong Hui’s fate had been in doubt after Kim Jong-un had her husband and the North‘s then-No. 2 official, Jang Song Thaek, executed for treason and corruption in 2013.

Rumours that she had been purged or executed by her nephew circulated for years before she was seen at a Lunar New Year’s concert in 2020.

The concert comes weeks after a flurry of missile tests that has unnerved South Korea and Japan and set off alarms in Washington. This included seven missile launches in just one month, more than all the missile tests carried out by North Korea throughout 2021.

The latest was on Sunday and included firing a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile, North Korea’s biggest missile test since 2017 – a bid to pressure the US to return to lift santions and kick off high-level talks over the North’s nuclear programme.

The North’s resumed brinkmanship comes amid US diplomatic agenda occupied by China’s increasing assertiveness, the Ukraine crisis and the post-pandemic economic recovery.

During the last two years, North Korea’s borders have been shut due to the Covid pandemic, which resulted in severe shortages in food supplies.

North Korean TV aired footage from a new documentary about Mr Kim’s alleged achievements during 2021, including anti-virus policies and weapons development. The footage showed him riding a white horse – a symbol of his family’s rule over the country – in a forest.

He was also noticeably slimmer than the previous month, a feature confirmed by South Korea’s intelligence officials who told legislators in October that Mr Kim had lost about 44lbs (20 kg) in weight, but he remains healthy.

Since before last month’s missile launch spree, a rigorous media campaign has been rolled out to bolster public loyalty to Mr Kim, whose recent speeches revealed heightened concerns over the regime’s grip on power due to the economic fallout.

The North has reluctantly reopened the borders with China and resumed the freight train last month to and from the giant neighbour, which is seen as a crucial ally the lifeline to Pyongyang’s economy.