Bags of sweets were given to children at nursery and elementary schools as the North Korean leader celebrated his 39th birthday on January 8.

It is an annual tradition to hand out sweets to commemorate North Korean leaders’ birthdays.

Before the pandemic, imported sweets from China were readily available and North Koreans used to compare and criticize the difference in quality against domestically made sweets distributed by the authorities. However, a source told Daily NK that “these days it’s so hard to feed one’s family that everyone is saying, ‘We’re so grateful just to receive [the candy].’”

Despite the seemingly joyous occasion, experts suggest that the leader is undergoing a midlife crisis and battling serious health problems as a result of his unhealthy lifestyle.

According to Dr. Choi Jinwook from a Seoul-based North Korea academic, “I heard he is crying after drinking a lot. He is very lonely and under pressure” over his personal health and safety.

Sources told Radio Free Asia that caretakers received plenty to feed working cows in order to boost harvest production while annual rations for farmers were halved. “As a result, farmers complained that cows were treated more favorably than people, and that cows are more important than people.”

According to the 2022 North Korean Crop Production Estimate, the country experienced a decrease in 180,000 tons of food from 2021.

Cow managers were given 100kg, or 100 days’ worth, of grain on top of farmers’ year-end distribution, while regular farmers only received 200 days’ worth of grain for the 365 working days.

As North Korea’s winter temperatures drop below zero, food becomes scarce and many missing people are believed to have starved or frozen to death.

Homeless beggar children, also known as kotebji, are dying on the streets while the working population leave home to hunt or fish in remote areas as they otherwise cannot afford food.

Despite various laws and campaigns that aim at preventing drug-related crimes, the use of meth and opium is common in North Korea, especially during Lunar New Year.

North Korean state media recently showed a group visit to a government-run museum that addresses how drug usage and foreign media consumption are “schemes to collapse our society by spreading reactionary ideological culture.”

Words like “drug use,” “smuggling” and “black market dealing” are exhibited along with photos of hard drives and other products that aid smuggling to educate citizens of what to avoid and report to the authorities.

Most items labeled as dangerous carriers of foreign media are from the early 2000s, including discs and USB sticks that are nowadays replaced by SD cards due to their small size and higher storage capacity.

A 19-year-old, Ri, who was tasked with guarding Kim Jong-un’s lavish Chamosan Villa in Pyongsong and deserted his post earlier this month was recently captured.

During his interrogation, Ri confessed that he had planned to live as a wandering beggar, also known as kkotjebi, at markets in Pyongyang’s Unjong District just to get a good night’s sleep.

The owner of a soup stall who sheltered and fed Ri for a week in exchange for labor and his military uniform was also called in for questioning.

Ri testified that he tossed away the automatic rifle and shells he took on a hillside near his patrol zone, but his unit was unable to retrieve the weapons and the Supreme Guard Command is treating this as a direct threat to the personal safety of Kim Jong-un.