More than a gesture: Kim Jong-un's mannerisms after Hanoi summit collapse point to a humiliated, more wary leader

[A STUDY OF KIM JONG-UN 5]

As North Korean leader Kim Jong-un strolled through the gardens of the Metropole Hanoi in Vietnam on Feb. 28, 2019, after a one-on-one meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, smiles crossed his face — seemingly at the sound of chirping birds.

He walked ahead of Trump on several occasions and smiled softly whenever Trump spoke, even before interpreters relayed the remarks.

Near the end of the walk, Kim clasped his hands behind his back and entered the meeting venue ahead of Trump.

But his expression changed after taking his seat for the expanded summit session.

Among the participants sat John Bolton, Trump's hawkish national security adviser.

Kim likely sensed instinctively that if Trump intended to give him what he wanted, Bolton would not be sitting at the table.

Then came a question one minute and 18 seconds after the opening remarks began. "Did you discuss human rights issues?"

Kim remained silent. Trump answered, "We are discussing everything."

From that moment on, Kim's hand gestures seemed to speak instead.

Kim took out a folded piece of paper to check its contents, then placed his interlocked hands on the table in his signature manner. Soon, his left thumb began moving busily.

This was followed by questions regarding the declaration of an end to the 1950-53 Korean War and the establishment of liaison offices. Kim repeatedly moved his left thumb up and down without pause, almost as though pressing an invisible button, while touching his right hand.

When Trump began speaking further about liaison offices, Kim interrupted him.

"I would appreciate having more time to continue our discussions,” Kim said. “Every minute is precious for us."

Although he smiled while speaking, his thumb moved so restlessly that it made onlookers anxious. The public portion of the remarks ended after just four minutes and second seconds.

"When people become anxious, the limbic system attempts to ease that tension in various ways, which often appear as self-soothing behaviors," said Kim Yeo-jung, head of personal branding company Jiem and Gitdum (JNG), which specializes in nonverbal communication.

"The brain has far more neural connections with the hands than with most other parts of the body. When the brain sends signals to calm down, the hands react immediately, producing movements that create comfort. Kim Jong-un's finger movements in Hanoi are a classic example of self-touch behavior aimed at reducing anxiety."

According to Kim Yeo-jung, although the North Korean leader said little, "his body was already emitting uncontrollable signals of uncontrollable stress."

Behavioral habits

The JoongAng Ilbo commissioned JNG to jointly analyze video footage of Kim Jong-un released between 2012, immediately after he took power, and 2025. JNG Company tracked changes in his facial expressions, gestures and posture during major speeches, field inspections and summits with the leaders of South Korea, the United States, China and Russia. The total amount of analyzed footage alone reached 315 hours.

According to the researchers, Kim Jong-un’s subconscious body language often revealed his psychological state more clearly than his words.

JNG’s Kim Yeo-jung said the anxiety-driven behavior Kim Jong-un displayed at the Hanoi "no-deal" summit bore a striking resemblance to that seen during Kim's early years in power in 2012.

Born as the son of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s third partner, Ko Yong-hui, with whom he never formally married, and having spent a secluded childhood, Kim Jong-un exhibited behavior indicative of a legitimacy complex immediately after assuming power.

The execution of his uncle Jang Song-thaek in late 2013 and the assassination of his half-brother Kim Jong-nam in 2017 have often been interpreted as efforts to eliminate potential threats.

Kim Jong-un's mannerisms grew more confident over time, yet shortly before the collapse of North-U.S. negotiations in Hanoi, his gestures suddenly reverted to the anxiety-ridden patterns of his early rule.

His body language, the analysis suggests, did not lie. The regressive anxiety visible at the Hanoi negotiating table bore a striking resemblance to the days when he was a 28-year-old leader who sought to present himself as the reincarnation of his grandfather, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung.

Anxiety from youth

During his first public speech on April 15, 2012 — the birthday of Kim Il Sung, celebrated in North Korea as the Day of the Sun — Kim Jong-un succeeded in looking like his grandfather in his youth. But his body displayed various signs of anxiety.

He blinked excessively, between 25 and 30 times a minute, averaging once every two to three seconds, compared with the normal range of 15 to 20. More than 25 times can be seen as a symptom of stress or cognitive overload. As he breathed, his shoulders rose four to five centimeters at a time, as if he were out of breath. This was twice the average level.

He barely looked at the audience and focused on reading the script placed on the podium. Kim Jong-un kept his head bowed so low that he appeared much smaller than the elderly military generals standing on either side of him.

When he did occasionally look at the crowd, those glances lasted only an average of 0.8 seconds. Compared to the average of two to three seconds for an average speaker, this amounted to merely lifting his head briefly and immediately lowering it.

During the military parade that followed, Kim Jong-un appeared uncertain about what to do with his left hand. While senior generals stood at attention, he alternated between gripping the desk, putting his hand in his pocket and clasping his hands behind his back.

Researchers said the habit of placing his hands in his pockets, which he frequently displayed in his early years, reflected anxiety rather than cold weather.

"People often conceal their palms when lying or hiding something," Kim Yeo-jung said.

His habit of fidgeting  also surfaced on Jan. 10, 2016, during a visit to the Ministry of People's Armed Forces, four days after North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test.

Despite smiling while speaking, Kim Jong-un’s thumb never stopped moving.

What stood out, however, was that none of those anxiety signals were visible during the walk with Trump before the expanded Hanoi session.

Singapore signals

At the first U.S.-North Korea summit in Singapore on June 12, 2018, Kim Jong-un walked slightly behind Trump, displaying what analysts described as "follower" behavior.

But in Hanoi, analysts found evidence of nonverbal mirroring that suggested Kim viewed himself as holding the upper hand as he walked ahead of Trump. On the other hand, Trump displayed an attitude closer to strategic acceptance, adapting his response to the other party, revealing the gap between expectation and reality through his body language.

Kim Jong-un entering the meeting room first, with his hands clasped behind his back, was interpreted as a display of confidence and a belief that he was in control of the situation.

Behavioral analysts say that, ironically, excessive confidence proved to be an early warning sign of the summit's collapse.

Their conclusions align with accounts from multiple sources familiar with the negotiations, who said Kim Jong-un had not anticipated a no-deal before entering the expanded session.

Even right up to the Hanoi summit, there was no significant progress in working-level talks. In a one-on-one meeting, Kim Jong-un demanded that Trump lift sanctions in exchange for abandoning the Yongbyon nuclear complex. Putting Yongbyon on the table was a strategic move of sorts.

However, when Kim Jong-un brought up this issue again during the expanded meeting, Trump countered by demanding that Pyongyang transparently disclose nuclear facilities other than Yongbyon. Bolton had prepared Trump thoroughly.

Faced with Trump, who appeared to know everything already, Kim Jong-un was flustered but insisted on his existing claims, and Trump walked out of the summit talks, concluding that the North Korean leader was not ready for a deal.

At the time, Trump reportedly regarded the episode as little more than an early setback in a lengthy negotiating process and expected Kim Jong-un to return to talks soon with a more flexible position.

Trump hadn’t anticipated that the deeply wounded North Korean leader would embark on a darker path.

Trump misunderstood North Korea, and Kim misunderstood the United States.

Researchers point out that hints of the strategic miscalculation that led to the Hanoi breakdown were already visible at the earlier Singapore summit.

When Kim Jong-un and Trump met for the first time, their initial handshake began with a tense battle of wills. While a handshake typically lasts two to three seconds, they held hands for 13.2 seconds, during which time Kim Jong-un gazed at Trump for 11.5 seconds.

However, as he spent more time with Trump, Kim Jong-un gradually appeared to calm down. His blinking rate was 22 times per minute during the initial greeting, but returned to the normal range of 16 times per minute during the luncheon. He was also captured on three occasions touching Trump's arm in a gesture of familiarity.

After signing the Singapore joint statement on June 12, 2018, Kim even placed his hand on Trump's back as they departed, a gesture interpreted as confidence in the summit's success.

As he parted ways with Trump, Kim Jong-un's stride also widened by five to seven centimeters, or 1.45 times longer than the average adult. This, too, is interpreted as an expression of accomplishment.

At the time, the Singapore joint statement drew mixed expectations and concerns because, unlike previous agreements that demanded North Korea's denuclearization first, it pursued the normalization of relations between Pyongyang and Washington and the simultaneous establishment of peace and denuclearization.

Kim Jong-un may have perceived this as his own victory. That confidence, however, ultimately proved poisonous.

Changed tendencies

Following the humiliation of the Hanoi summit, analysts say, Kim's body language changed dramatically.

JNG calculated a "personal behavior expression index" based on 12 indicators, including laughter, gesture size, self-contact, camera awareness and conformity.

A higher score indicates a more open evaluation; Kim Jong-un’s score was 48 points during the early years of his rule (2014–2017), but it soared to 85 points between March and June 2018, when the summits with South Korea, North Korea, the United States and China took place. However, it plunged to 45 points following the Hanoi no-deal talks and has since dropped to 35 points, establishing him as a more rigid and controlling leader.

Following the Hanoi talks, Kim Jong-un began to avoid eye contact. The rate of avoiding eye contact in front of crowds rose from 15 percent to 58 percent. Eye contact duration dropped from 3.8 seconds to 1.2 seconds.

Gesture size is classified as an open indicator, and the range of Kim Jong-un’s arm movements decreased by 50 percent, falling from 1.4 times the average to 0.7 times.

This signals that his psychological vigilance has intensified and that he has blocked the expression of emotions. Emotional leaks, which were frequent before Hanoi at 1.8 times per minute, dropped by 83 percent to 0.3 times per minute.

Following the humiliation of the Hanoi "no deal," Kim Jong-un no longer reveals his true emotions to the outside world.

He also decided that he would no longer genuinely smile at the sound of beautiful bird songs.

BY YOO JEE-HYE, CHUNG YEONG-GYO, SHIM SEOK-YONG [[email protected]]