The North Korean regime is busy consolidating the personality cult around leader Kim Jong-un while paying scant attention to improving the wellbeing of its people, observers say.

Analysis of the North's official Rodong Sinmun daily from January 2012 until June this year highlights a whopping 141 projects involving statues, murals, towers and other structures dedicated to the North Korean leader, his late father Kim Jong-il or nation founder Kim Il-sung, either being renovated or newly built.

That compares to just 72 such projects pursued in 2010 and 2011 when stone-age dictator Kim Jong-il was still alive.