---
title: '"21세기의 태양 김정일장군 만세!": billboard, Pyongyang (photographed 2011)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sun-of-21st-century-kim-jong-il-billboard-2011/
description: A billboard between apartment blocks in Pyongyang shows a red flag with a star-and-wreath emblem, the national flag, a Workers' Party flag and a bank of…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[!["21세기의 태양 김정일장군 만세!": billboard, Pyongyang (photographed 2011)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/sun-of-21st-century-kim-jong-il-billboard-2011.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/sun-of-21st-century-kim-jong-il-billboard-2011.jpg)

# "21세기의 태양 김정일장군 만세!": billboard, Pyongyang (photographed 2011)

A billboard between apartment blocks in Pyongyang shows a red flag with a star-and-wreath emblem, the national flag, a Workers' Party flag and a bank of red flowers. Beneath it the slogan reads 'Long live General Kim Jong Il, the Sun of the 21st century!' The tell is the sun metaphor: the leader is named as a source of light and warmth for a whole century, a glittering generality that carries the prestige of the flags and emblems beside it (transfer).

## Text on the object

Original (Korean) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
21세기의 태양 김정일장군 만세!

[upper left, partly hidden by foliage:] 21세[...]
김정일[...]입니다
김일성
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
Long live General Kim Jong Il, Sun of the 21st century!

[upper left, partly hidden:] 21st [century ...] / Kim Jong Il [... is/are ...] / Kim Il Sung
```

The bottom slogan is clear. The upper-left text is partly hidden by leaves; only the fragments shown can be read and the sentence is not reconstructed. Translation by machine, not verified by a fluent reader.

[← "위대한 장군님의 선군사상으로 사회주의위업을 끝까지 완성하자!": Songun billboard, Pyongyang (photographed 2011)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/songun-thought-billboard-pyongyang-2011/) [Committee for the Defense of the Revolution, Zona 18, Old Havana: doorway, 2012 →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cuba-cdr-old-havana-committee-doorway-2012/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Bronze sestertius of Trajan, reverse S P Q R OPTIMO PRINCIPI, S C, the emperor on horseback riding down an enemy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-trajan-optimo-principi-0103/) (Roman Empire · 0103 · Testimonial, Glittering generalities)
- [Gold solidus of Constantine I, reverse RESTITVTORI LIBERTATIS](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-constantine-i-restitutori-libertatis-0313/) (Roman Empire · 0313 · Glittering generalities)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (Byzantine Empire · 0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I (Royal Museums Greenwich version), oil on panel](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/armada-portrait-elizabeth-i-greenwich-1588/) (England · 1588 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Medal of Elizabeth I: portrait in a ruff, reverse an ark on stormy waves with SAEVAS TRANQVILLA PER VNDAS (18th-century aftercast of a 1588 model)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/elizabeth-i-ark-medal-aftercast-1588/) (England · 1588 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (Dutch Republic · 1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)