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.

朝鮮領導人金正恩上週主持召開執政的勞動黨會議時給與會者帶來了一些好消息。長期以來，朝鮮飽受饑荒困擾，金正恩在講話中指出，「到目前為止，全國農業生產狀況還算不錯」；而且，朝鮮最近還與俄羅斯簽署了共同防禦條約。

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.

但更大的新聞也許是出席這個在首都平壤召開的會議的官員們佩戴的東西：據朝鮮官媒發布的照片​​，他們胸前都佩戴著金正恩像章。

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年朝鮮建國以來一直領導該國，並一直在朝鮮民眾當中對金氏家族加以神化。在朝鮮，每戶人家和每棟辦公樓的牆上都掛著金正恩祖父金日成和父親金正日的畫像。每個朝鮮人必須在胸前佩戴金日成或者金正日像章，或是這兩名已故朝鮮領導人頭像放在一起的像章。

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.

韓國官員和分析人士稱，金正恩推出自己的像章，是將對他的個人崇拜和迷信提升到了此前保留給金日成和金正日的水平。金日成從1948年起統治朝鮮，直至1994年去世；金正日繼承了父親的統治地位，直至2011年去世。新像章的啟用意味著朝鮮人民現在能在三個像章之間作出選擇。

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

如果按照傳統做法，最新一代領導人像章，也就是金正恩像章最終將成為最普遍的選擇。

“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.

「這是金正恩樹立領袖自主形象努力的一部分，」韓國政府統一部副發言人金仁愛週一說。

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.

朝鮮在1970年推出金日成像章。當時這名建國領袖58歲，已清除了在國內的所有競爭對手，建立起獨裁統治。金正日像章是在1992年啟用的，當時他50歲。那時候，他已鞏固了自己的繼承人地位，正在與患病的父親一起管理國家。

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.”

像章從那時起成為了朝鮮個人崇拜最鮮明的特徵。但在普通民眾當中，像章開始失去魅力，尤其是在20世紀90年代的饑荒導致數百萬人死亡之後。曾經被朝鮮人視為聖物的像章被走私到中國，作為廉價旅遊紀念品在中朝邊境附近出售。脫北者稱像章為「奴隸的徽章」。

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.

金仁愛指出，在朝鮮面臨經濟困難以及所謂外部影響的威脅——其中包括來自競爭對手韓國的K-pop——之際，新像章的啟用與金正恩將國家團結在自己領導之下的努力有關。

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.

金正恩是在父親2011年去世後上台執政的。他迅速採取行動，在一個被韓國官員和分析人士稱之為「恐怖統治」的時期建立了自己的極權領導地位。任何被視為對其權威構成挑戰的人或者消失，或者遭到處決與暗殺。

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.

金家向長期飽受苦難的朝鮮人民承諾建立一個「強大而繁榮的國家」，讓人民不再因為糧食短缺而勒緊褲腰帶，不再擔心來自美國的入侵��但金正恩面臨重重困難，始終難以兌現這些承諾。

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.

金正恩在經濟上舉步維艱，無法說服華盛頓解除對它因研發核武器而實施的制裁。他在人民心目中的威望主要取決於他為自己精心塑造的形象，即他是最終把朝鮮變成一個擁核國家的領導人。

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.”

在金正恩的領導下，朝鮮已經進行了四次地下核試驗，研發出一系列的導彈，包括能夠打擊美國本土的遠程導彈。在勞動黨會議的最後一天，也就是週一，朝鮮宣布試射了一枚能夠攜帶「超大彈頭」的新型彈道導彈。

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.

儘管取得了這些軍事成就，但金正恩對權力的掌握依賴於給個人崇拜注入新的活力，讓朝鮮人遠離來自外部的新聞。

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.

金正恩試圖以新形式展現金氏統治，將自己塑造為一名年輕、精力充沛，甚至具有變革精神的領導人。他用祖父風格的穿著來強調自己的家族血統，但同時似乎也想與先輩保持距離，努力擺脫他們長長的影子，讓自己看起來是一名值得尊敬的領導人。

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，他放棄了金日成設定的與韓國實現統一的長期目標，把韓國稱為必須征服的敵人，如有必要，將發動核戰爭。朝鮮今年也沒有在4月15日像以往那樣大舉紀念金日成的生日。政府宣傳人員已開始用過去頌揚金日成和金正日的方式讚美金正恩，稱他是朝鮮人民的「太陽」，所有朝鮮人的「父親」，並分發他的畫像供政府大樓和家中懸掛。

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

分析人士說，在金正恩像章的背後，可以看到他對自己的獨裁統治越來越有信心。

“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.

「這是用官方形式表明，金正恩現在與前輩金日成和金正日處於同一層次，」位於首爾的朝鮮研究大學校長楊武仁（音）說。