See Kim Jong-il in HD: rare reels of North Korean leader in his youth released online

Clips, in colour and monochrome, show leader during his time as heir apparent to father Kim Il-sung

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Kim Jong-il the director? A screengrab from the archive footage in high definition shows Kim inspecting new equipment in a broadcasting studio.

Published: 11:00am, 6 Mar 2015Updated: 2:29pm, 6 Mar 2015

North Korean state television has apparently released a rare trove of footage showing Kim Jong-il as a much younger man – this time in high definition.

Viewers can now see high-resolution archive clips of Kim, in colour and monochrome, from his time as heir apparent to father Kim Il-sung, up to when he became leader of the country.

Three high-definition (HD) clips were published on a YouTube account under the name KCTV News, North Korea’s broadcaster and sole provider of the reclusive socialist state’s programming.

While the account could not be verified as state-sanctioned, the timing of the clips’ release matches reports about technology upgrades in the North, according to news website NKNews.org.

In one video, a posthumous tribute to two North Korean media officials, a woman narrator extols the virtues of news presenter Jeon Hyung-kyu, who before his death in 2006 penned a feverish letter admiring Kim Jong-il, and TV producer Shin Kyung-joo, whose date of death was not specified.

Kim Jong-il (2nd from left), fiddles with a camera inside a news studio, in this screengrab from an apparent KCTV online video.

But what is more interesting are the reels, believed to have been shot in the 1980s to 1990s, showing Kim taking a tour of broadcasting offices.