When Kim Jong-eun attended a concert last week featuring girl groups and a host of Disney characters, state media said the young North Korean leader had a “grandiose plan to bring about a dramatic turn in the field of literature and arts”.

This week Mr Kim turned to military matters, ousting the powerful head of the army and promoting himself to the pre-eminent military rank of marshal. Analysts say he is stamping his mark on the country – and particularly on the 1.2m-strong military – seven months after he assumed power on the death of his father, Kim Jong-il.

The new leader appears to be reducing the power of a group of elderly generals who rose to power under his father, and to reassert the subordination of the military to Korean Workers’ party structures.