North Korea placed more children and teenagers as protagonists in its films and soap operas in an effort to reinforce the personality cult of the country's young leader Kim Jong-un, a report showed Thursday.

Children and the youth have appeared as the main characters in four North Korean movies and television dramas since Kim took office in late 2011, making up for 21.05 percent of the total, according to the report by South Korea's Inje University.

The report was written at the request of the Unification Ministry and checked films and dramas produced between January 2012 and September 2015.

The North's leader Kim, believed to be in his early 30s, inherited power from his father Kim Jong-il who died suddenly due to heart failure in December 2011.

During the senior Kim's regime, the number of movies and soap operas featuring children and teenagers as heroes reached 16, accounting for a mere 5.92 percent of the total, according to the report.

"North Korea seems to be targeting youngsters who can easily be won over by the young leader in a bid to strengthen the personality cult of Kim," said An Ji-young, a professor at Inje University.

But even as the youth appear as heroes in cultural works, most of them are portrayed as feeble and passive, it said.

An said that in the past, youngsters were described realistically to some degree in movies and dramas where their emotions and struggles in the face of difficult situations were expressed.

"But since 2012, most works have focused on how to express allegiance toward the North's leader by making the youth appear as main characters," the professor said. (Yonhap)