从核弹疯子到精明领袖，金正恩如何实现形象转变？

He spent millions developing and testing a hydrogen bomb and intercontinental ballistic missiles as his people suffered severe food shortages. He exchanged threats of nuclear annihilation with President Trump, calling the American leader a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard.”

在他的人民遭受严重食物短缺之际，他花费数百万美元开发和试验氢弹以及洲际弹道导弹。他与特朗普总统互相发出核毁灭威胁，称这位美国领导人是“精神错乱的美国老糊涂”。

That was last year’s image.

那是他去年的形象。

In more recent months, North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has achieved one of the most striking transformations in modern diplomacy.

最近几个月，朝鲜领导人金正恩实现了现代外交史上最引人注目的转变。

The man has held hands and had heart-to-heart talks with South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, who has encouraged and abetted Mr. Kim’s makeover.

金正恩与韩国总统文在寅握了手，进行了坦诚的对话。金正恩的转变是在文在寅的鼓励和敦促下实现的。

Mr. Kim has enticed South Korea and the United States into negotiations by dangling the possibility of denuclearizing his country. His popularity has surged in polls in South Korea as he prepares to become the first North Korean leader to meet a sitting American president.

金正恩以朝鲜去核化为诱饵，吸引韩国和美国进行谈判。鉴于他打算成为首位会见美国在任总统的朝鲜领导人，他在韩国民意调查中的支持率已飙升。

With a dazzle of diplomatic initiatives in the run-up to his historic June 12 summit meeting with Mr. Trump in Singapore, Mr. Kim has effectively redefined himself. Some South Koreans now see him as more reliable than Mr. Trump despite the decades-long alliance between their country and the United States.

在6月12日与特朗普在新加坡举行具有历史意义的峰会之前，金正恩采取了一系列外交举措，有效地重新定义了自己。一些韩国人现在认为金正恩比特朗普更可靠，尽管韩国与美国已结盟数十年。

Mr. Kim’s enhanced standing among South Koreans was crystallized by recent images of him walking in the woods with Mr. Moon, and on a beach with President Xi Jinping of China discussing North Korea’s nuclear program.

最近，金正恩与文在寅在林中散步，与习近平在海滩上讨论朝鲜核计划的形象令他在韩国民众心目中的地位进一步提升。

The optics contrasted with what many South Koreans view as Mr. Trump’s scattershot diplomacy, in which he abruptly canceled the Singapore summit meeting, then reversed himself after Mr. Kim authorized a calm statement offering Mr. Trump “time and opportunity” to change his mind. (On Wednesday, one of the president’s lawyers, Rudolph W. Giuliani, said that Mr. Kim “got back on his hands and knees and begged” for the meeting to be rescheduled.)

这样的形象与许多韩国人眼中特朗普随意的外交手段形成了鲜明的对比。特朗普突然取消了新加坡峰会，在金正恩授权发表一份给特朗普“时间和机会”改变主意的冷静声明后，特朗普又改变了决定（周三，特朗普的一名律师鲁道夫·朱利安尼说，金正恩“跪地乞求”重新安排峰会）。

Despite the image change, Mr. Kim is unlikely to surrender his nuclear weapons anytime soon, or ease the grip of his repressive regime. But he has proved to be a skilled — some might say beguiling — strategist, driving events on the Korean Peninsula and showing a willingness to recalibrate.

尽管金正恩的形象有所改变，但他不太可能很快交出核武器，或者放松对自己专制政权的控制。事实证明，他是一位老练的——有人可能会说是狡诈的——战略家，一直在推动朝鲜半岛的事态发展，表现出重新调整的意愿。

“Kim Jong-un is creating a new portrait of him abroad as the leader of a normal country,” said Kang Dong-wan, an expert on North Korea’s “image politics” at Dong-A University in Busan, South Korea.

韩国釜山东亚大学研究朝鲜“形象政治”的专家姜东浣（音）说:“他正在海外塑造自己是一个正常国家的领导人的新形象。”

In the West, Mr. Kim, 34, has often been caricatured as a chubby child toying with nuclear missiles. Mr. Trump, more than twice his age, has called Mr. Kim “short and fat,” a “sick puppy” and a “little rocket man.”

在西方，34岁的金正恩经常被讽刺为一个玩核弹的胖小孩。岁数比他大两倍多的特朗普称金正恩“又矮又胖”，是一只“生病的小狗”，一个“小火箭人”。

But when Mr. Trump meets Mr. Kim, the American leader will be dealing with a politician adept at political theatrics to bolster Mr. Kim’s charisma at home and advance his agenda abroad.

但当特朗普与金正恩会面时，这位美国领导人将要与一位政客打交道，此人擅长政治表演，增强自己在国内的领袖魅力，并推进在国外的议程。

“The reason the world pays attention to him is not just because he has a few nuclear weapons, but more because of his image as a leader with mystical power, his absolute control over a highly consolidated, regimented and disciplined country,” said Chung Byung-ho, an anthropologist at Hanyang University in South Korea, who examined the role of theatrics in North Korean politics in a book he wrote with another scholar.

“世界关注他不只是因为他有几个核武器，更多的是因为他是一个神秘政权的领导人，对一个高度统一、刻板、严格的国家有着绝对的控制权，”韩国汉阳大学人类学家郑炳镐（音）说。他和另一位学者合着了一本书，研究表演艺术在朝鲜政治中的作用。

Whatever his true personality, Mr. Kim has found an avid partner in advancing his new image: Mr. Moon.

不管金正恩的真实个性如何，他都找到了一个推广自己新形象的热情配合者：文在寅。

Since taking office a year ago, Mr. Moon has exhorted Mr. Trump to test the idea that Mr. Kim was a reasonable leader ready to bargain away his nuclear weapons for the right incentives, such as normalized ties and security assurances from the United States. It seems to have worked: Mr. Trump has recently changed his public appraisals of the North Korean leader, calling him “smart and gracious” and “very honorable.”

自一年前上台以来，文在寅一直在极力劝说特朗普尝试接受这样的观点，那就是，金正恩是一个理性的领导人，愿意为换取合适的激励条件而放弃核武器，比如，与美国关系的正常化，以及美国的安全保证。这似乎奏效了：特朗普最近改变了对这位朝鲜领导人的公开评价，称他“聪明、亲切”、“非常可敬”。

Mr. Kim started his image makeover this year by reaching out to South Korea, which was eager to play intermediary between North Korea and the United States after a year in which the countries appeared to verge on war. In a New Year’s Day speech, Mr. Kim offered to send athletes, cheerleaders and political emissaries to South Korea during its Winter Olympics.

今年，金正恩开始通过向韩国示好重塑自己的形象。在两国处于战争边缘一年后，韩国急于充当朝鲜和美国的中间人。金正恩在新年致辞中提议在韩国冬奥会期间派遣运动员、啦啦队和政治特使前往韩国。

Then, he whetted Washington’s appetite for negotiations by announcing a moratorium on nuclear and missile tests, closing North Korea’s only known nuclear test site and releasing three American prisoners. He also appeared to have hedged his bets by meeting twice with Mr. Xi, mending frayed ties with an old ally whose protection he needed as he entered delicate negotiations with Washington.

然后，他宣布暂停核试验和导弹试验、关闭朝鲜已知的唯一一个核试验基地、释放三名美国囚犯，通过这些举动激起了华盛顿的谈判意愿。他似乎还给自己留了后手：两次与习近平会面，修复与老盟友的紧张关系。在与华盛顿进行微妙的谈判时，他需要中国的保护。

The diplomatic outreach was a sharp departure from North Korea’s history of rhetorical bombast, chest-thumping theatrics, military parades and mass rallies, which have fed the country’s image as an international pariah.

朝鲜之前那些浮夸的言辞、虚张声势的表演、阅兵和大规模集会无不进一步巩固了朝鲜被国际社会遗弃的形象，此时的外交示好与那些做法截然不同。

Mr. Kim’s image reinvention was skillfully staged with the help of Mr. Moon’s government, which made sure every detail of the leaders’ April 27 summit meeting was steeped in potent symbols dear to both Koreas: respect, ethnic unity and eventual Korean reunification.

金正恩的形象重塑经过巧妙的安排，并且得到了文在寅政府的帮助。文在寅政府确保4月27日两国领导人会晤的每一个细节都浸透了双方珍视的重大象征意义：尊重、民族团结和最终的朝韩统一。

For the meeting held at the “truce village” of Panmunjom on the inter-Korean border, Mr. Moon’s government redecorated a conference building, installing paintings of famous mountains and waterfalls that reminded people in both Koreas of their shared heritage before their peninsula was divided by foreign powers at the end of World War II.

为了在两国边境上的“停战村”板门店村举行的会晤，文在寅政府重新装修了举行会谈的建筑，并摆放了多幅画作。画上的名山名水让两国民众想起了他们在二战结束时，朝鲜半岛被外国势力一分为二之前共有的遗产。

“We packed each piece of furniture and each painting with a story,” said Koh Min-jeong, a spokeswoman for Mr. Moon.

“我们让每一件家具和每一幅画都讲述了一个故事，”文在寅的发言人高敏正（音）说。

During a break from their talks, Mr. Kim and Mr. Moon ambled off for a walk through the woods of Panmunjom, with cameras broadcasting their outing live around the world.

会谈休息期间，金正恩和文在寅在板门店的树林里散步，多部摄像机向全世界直播了这个场景。

But nothing softened Mr. Kim’s image like the moment when he arrived at the border to meet with Mr. Moon. At Mr. Kim’s suggestion, Mr. Moon stepped across the border into the North for 10 seconds. Then Mr. Kim and Mr. Moon walked back across to the South for their meeting, holding hands, an encounter that transfixed television viewers in South Korea.

但没有什么比金正恩到达两国边境并见到文在寅的那一刻更能软化他的形象。在金正恩的建议下，文在寅跨过边境进入朝鲜，停留了10秒钟。然后，金正恩和文在寅手挽着手回到举行会谈的韩国。这一幕令电视机前的韩国观众惊呆了。

“That single gesture went beyond political language,” said Mr. Chung, the anthropologist. “The theatrics conveyed messages of trust that language alone could not.”

“这个动作超越了政治语言，”人类学家郑炳浩说。“这个戏剧化的动作传达出了信任的信号，是仅靠语言无法传递的。”

The summit meeting mainly rehashed old inter-Korean agreements that had never been kept, producing only a vaguely worded commitment to denuclearization and peace. But the images made the event a success, providing momentum for warmed ties between the two countries and redefining Mr. Kim in the eyes of many South Koreans.

这次会谈主要是对两国之前从未执行的旧协议稍加改动，只达成了一个含糊其辞的无核化及和平承诺。但这些画面让这次活动取得了成功，为两国关系升温提供了动力，并重新定义了金正恩在很多韩国人眼中的形象。

The next morning, a South Korean newspaper filled its front and back pages with a photograph showing Mr. Moon and Mr. Kim crossing the border hand in hand. Mr. Kim, formerly vilified as the region’s most dangerous leader, was considered “trustworthy” by 77 percent of South Koreans following the meeting, according to a survey by the Korea Research Center.

第二天早上，韩国一家报纸在头版和最后一页上刊登了文在寅与金正恩手挽手跨过边境的照片。韩国研究中心(Korea Research Center)的一项调查显示，会谈结束后，77%的韩国人认为金正恩“值得信任”。在那之前，他被认为是该地区最危险的领导人。

“Chairman Kim’s popularity has risen rapidly among South Koreans, and so have the expectations,” Mr. Moon told Mr. Kim last month when they met for the second timeat Panmunjom. He said the summit meeting especially strengthened Mr. Kim’s image among younger South Koreans, who have shaped their views of North Korea through the past decade of inter-Korean tensions and have become increasingly skeptical of reconciliation, much less reunification, with the North.

“金委员长在韩国民众中的受欢迎程度迅速上升，人们的期望也是如此，”两人上月在板门店第二次会面时，文在寅对金正恩说。他说，那次会面尤其强化了金正恩在韩国年轻人中的形象。他们在两国过去十年的紧张关系中形成了自己对朝鲜的看法，越来越怀疑与朝鲜和解的可能性，更别说统一了。

“That’s great to hear,” Mr. Kim responded, according to South Korean officials.

据韩国官员称，金正恩回答说，“听到你这么说太高兴了。”

Critics warn of dashed expectations, reiterating their view that Mr. Kim will never completely abandon the nuclear weapons considered so dear to his regime’s survival and his legitimacy as leader of North Korea.

批评人士发出了希望破灭的警告，并重申了他们的观点，即金正恩永远不会彻底放弃核武器，因为它们对他的政权的生存，以及他作为朝鲜领导人的合法性至关重要。

“It’s right to be skeptical,” said Ra Jong-yil, a political scientist and former deputy director of the South’s National Intelligence Service. “How can the leader of a nation change so quickly? We tend to see what we want to see in North Korea.”

“持怀疑态度是对的，”曾任韩国国家情报院(National Intelligence Service)副院长的政治学专家罗钟一(Ra Jong-yil)说。“一个国家的领导人怎么可能变得这么快？在朝鲜问题上，我们往往只会看到自己想看到的东西。”

Some expect that in his meeting with Mr. Trump, Mr. Kim will most likely commit to denuclearizing his country completely in order to weaken the rationale for sanctions, but insist on a “phased” denuclearization. They say Mr. Kim probably fears that whatever agreement he strikes with Mr. Trump may not survive, given Washington’s uNPRedictable politics.

一些人预计，在与特朗普会面时，金正恩极有可能会为了削弱制裁的理由而承诺朝鲜的彻底无核化，但坚持“分阶段”的无核化。他们说，金正恩可能担心，鉴于华盛顿的政局令人捉摸不透，他与特朗普达成的任何协议都可能无法存活。