Latte art and a gym ad shows Kim Jong Un's softer image in South Korea
SEOUL (Reuters) - With missile tests, nuclear threats and ruthless destruction of opponents, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been an ominous presence hanging over the South.
These days, however, customers at a cafe in the centre of South Korea can find an image of the North Korean leader staring up at them from their coffee cups.
Since a beaming Kim held a summit in April with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, the In & Out cafe in Jeonju city, three hours south of the capital Seoul, has been serving lattes decorated with frothy images of the two leaders.
A sign also offers customers the chance to take a photo and be featured on latte foam along with Kim and Moon.
“I watched the inter-Korean summit and was very impressed,” said owner Kim Jeong-il, who coincidentally shares his name with Kim Jong Un’s father. “My shop is named ‘In & Out,’ and I made (the latte) praying for peace in the hope that we would be able to go ‘in and out’ of South Korea and North Korea.”
Few other businesses seem to be willing to risk using Kim’s image, but in the wake of the April summit, where Kim came across as an affable young man, more South Koreans are changing attitudes towards a leader who has threatened to destroy Seoul.
Besides raining invective on the South and its leaders since he took power in Pyongyang in 2011, Kim has been accused of ordering the killing of his uncle and half-brother and of scores of officials suspected of disloyalty.
According to a Gallup Korea survey released on June 1, Kim’s overall favourability among South Koreans rose from 10 percent in March to 31 percent in May. An earlier Gallup Korea survey conducted after the April summit showed that 65 percent of respondents had a more favourable view of Kim after the summit than before.
Kim’s popularity in South Korea is likely to have increased even more ahead of a summit next week with US President Donald Trump in Singapore.
Moon told Kim during a second inter-Korean summit in May that the North Korean leader had “gained a lot of popularity in South Korea recently,” to which Kim responded: “That is a relief.”