When North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, met with his ruling Workers’ Party in the past week, he had some good news. The country, which has long struggled with hunger, was expecting a “fairly good” harvest this year, he reported, and had recently signed a mutual defense treaty with Russia.

朝鲜领导人金正恩上周主持召开执政的劳动党会议时给与会者带来了一些好消息。长期以来，朝鲜饱受饥荒困扰，金正恩在讲话中指出，“到目前为止，全国农业生产状况还算不错”；而且，朝鲜最近还与俄罗斯签署了共同防御条约。

The bigger news, though, might be what officials were wearing at the meeting in Pyongyang, the capital: chest pins bearing Mr. Kim’s image, according to photos released through state media.

但更大的新闻也许是出席这个在首都平壤召开的会议的官员们佩戴的东西：据朝鲜官媒发布的照片​​，他们胸前都佩戴着金正恩像章。

Mr. Kim’s family has led North Korea since its founding in 1948 and has long indoctrinated its people to worship the Kims like godlike figures. Every home and office building has portraits of Mr. Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il-sung, and his father, Kim Jong-il, hanging on walls. Every North Korean is required to wear a pin bearing the image of either of the two senior Kims or a double-image badge on their chest.

金氏家族自1948年朝鲜建国以来一直领导该国，并一直在朝鲜民众当中对金氏家族加以神化。在朝鲜，每户人家和每栋办公楼的墙上都挂着金正恩祖父金日成和父亲金正日的画像。每个朝鲜人必须在胸前佩戴金日成或者金正日像章，或是这两名已故朝鲜领导人头像放在一起的像章。

By introducing a pin of his own image, Mr. Kim is elevating his idolization and the personality cult surrounding him to match the level reserved, until now, only for his grandfather, who ruled from 1948 until his death in 1994, and his father, who succeeded him and ruled until 2011, according to South Korean officials and analysts. Its introduction means that North Koreans now have three pins and images to choose from for wearing.

韩国官员和分析人士称，金正恩推出自己的像章，是将对他的个人崇拜和迷信提升到了此前保留给金日成和金正日的水平。金日成从1948年起统治朝鲜，直至1994年去世；金正日继承了父亲的统治地位，直至2011年去世。新像章的启用意味着朝鲜人民现在能在三个像章之间作出选择。

If tradition follows, the image of the latest leader — now Kim Jong-un’s — will eventually become the most common choice.

如果按照传统做法，最新一代领导人像章，也就是金正恩像章最终将成为最普遍的选择。

“This is part of Kim Jong-un’s efforts to establish his own independent image as leader,” Kim Inae, a deputy spokeswoman for the South Korean government’s Unification Ministry, said on Monday.

“这是金正恩树立领袖自主形象努力的一部分，”韩国政府统一部副发言人金仁爱周一说。

North Korea introduced the Kim Il-sung badges in 1970 after the country’s founder purged all his domestic competitors to establish a monolithic rule. Kim Il-sung then was 58 years old. Kim Jong-il’s pin was introduced in 1992, when he was 50. By then, he had cemented his status as heir and was running the country together with his ailing father.

朝鲜在1970年推出金日成像章。当时这名建国领袖58岁，已清除了在国内的所有竞争对手，建立起独裁统治。金正日像章是在1992年启用的，当时他50岁。那时候，他已巩固了自己的继承人地位，正在与患病的父亲一起管理国家。

The lapel badges have since become the most recognizable feature of the personality cult. But they began losing their appeal among ordinary North Koreans, especially after a famine in the 1990s that killed millions. Once treated like a sacred object by North Koreans, they were smuggled out to China and sold as cheap tourist souvenirs near the border with North Korea. Defectors from North Korea called them “badges of slavery.”

像章从那时起成为了朝鲜个人崇拜最鲜明的特征。但在普通民众当中，像章开始失去魅力，尤其是在20世纪90年代的饥荒导致数百万人死亡之后。曾经被朝鲜人视为圣物的像章被走私到中国，作为廉价旅游纪念品在中朝边境附近出售。脱北者称像章为“奴隶的徽章”。

Ms. Kim, of the Unification Ministry, linked the introduction of the new Kim Jong-un pin to Mr. Kim’s efforts to unify the country around his leadership as it faces economic difficulties and the perceived threat of outside influences, including K-pop entertainment from its rival, South Korea.

金仁爱指出，在朝鲜面临经济困难以及所谓外部影响的威胁——其中包括来自竞争对手韩国的K-pop——之际，新像章的启用与金正恩将国家团结在自己领导之下的努力有关。

When he came to power after the death of his father in 2011, Mr. Kim moved to quickly establish a totalitarian leadership through what South Korean officials and analysts have called a “reign of terror.” Anyone who was seen as posing a challenge to his authority disappeared or was executed or assassinated.

金正恩是在父亲2011年去世后上台执政的。他迅速采取行动，在一个被韩国官员和分析人士称之为“恐怖统治”的时期建立了自己的极权领导地位。任何被视为对其权威构成挑战的人或者消失，或者遭到处决与暗杀。

But he has struggled to deliver on his family’s promise to North Korea’s long-suffering people: to build a “strong and prosperous country” where people would no longer have to tighten their belts because of food shortages or fear an invasion from the United States.

金家向长期饱受苦难的朝鲜人民承诺建立一个“强大而繁荣的国家”，让人民不再因为粮食短缺而勒紧裤腰带，不再担心来自美国的入侵。但金正恩面临重重困难，始终难以兑现这些承诺。

Mr. Kim has struggled on the economic front, unable to persuade Washington to lift sanctions imposed on his country for its nuclear weapons development. His credentials among his people rested largely on his carefully choreographed image as a leader who has finally made North Korea a nuclear weapons state.

金正恩在经济上举步维艰，无法说服华盛顿解除对它因研发核武器而实施的制裁。他在人民心目中的威望主要取决于他为自己精心塑造的形象，即他是最终把朝鲜变成一个拥核国家的领导人。

Under Mr. Kim, North Korea has conducted four underground nuclear tests and developed a fleet of missiles, including long-range rockets able to reach the continental United States. On Monday, the last day of the Workers’ Party meeting, the country said it tested a new ballistic missile capable of carrying a “super-large warhead.”

在金正恩的领导下，朝鲜已经进行了四次地下核试验，研发出一系列的导弹，包括能够打击美国本土的远程导弹。在劳动党会议的最后一天，也就是周一，朝鲜宣布试射了一枚能够携带“超大弹头”的新型弹道导弹。

Despite such military achievements, Mr. Kim’s hold on power has depended on reinvigorating the personality cult and in keeping North Koreans away from outside news.

尽管取得了这些军事成就，但金正恩对权力的掌握依赖于给个人崇拜注入新的活力，让朝鲜人远离来自外部的新闻。

Mr. Kim has tried to reinvent his family’s rule, casting himself as a young, energetic and even transformative leader. He has emphasized his family lineage by dressing like his grandfather, but has also appeared to distance himself from his forebears in an effort to move out of their long shadows and show that he is a worthy leader in his own right.

金正恩试图以新形式展现金氏统治，将自己塑造为一名年轻、精力充沛，甚至具有变革精神的领导人。他用祖父风格的穿着来强调自己的家族血统，但同时似乎也想与先辈保持距离，努力摆脱他们长长的影子，让自己看起来是一名值得尊敬的领导人。

This year, he abandoned a longtime goal, set by his grandfather, of reunifying with the South and called Seoul an enemy that must be subjugated, if necessary, through a nuclear war. North Korea did not highlight Kim Il-sung’s April 15 birthday this year as much as it used to. State propagandists have begun praising Mr. Kim the way they used to eulogize his father and grandfather, calling him “the Sun” of the Korean people and the “father” of all Koreans, and have begun distributing portraits of him to be hung in government buildings and homes.

今年，他放弃了金日成设定的与韩国实现统一的长期目标，把韩国称为必须征服的敌人，如有必要，将发动核战争。朝鲜今年也没有在4月15日像以往那样大举纪念金日成的生日。政府宣传人员已开始用过去颂扬金日成和金正日的方式赞美金正恩，称他是朝鲜人民的“太阳”，所有朝鲜人的“父亲”，并分发他的画像供政府大楼和家中悬挂。

The distribution of the lapel pin reflected Mr. Kim’s growing confidence in his one-man dictatorship, analysts said.

分析人士说，在金正恩像章的背后，可以看到他对自己的独裁统治越来越有信心。

“It makes it official that he is now on the same echelon with his forebears, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il,” said Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

“这是用官方形式表明，金正恩现在与前辈金日成和金正日处于同一层次，”位于首尔的朝鲜研究大学校长杨武仁（音）说。