Oblivious to international tensions over a possible North Korean missile launch, Pyongyang residents spilled into the streets yesterday to celebrate a major national holiday, the birthday of their first leader, North Korean founder Kim Il-sung.
Girls in red and pink jackets skipped along streets festooned with celebratory banners and flags and parents pushed strollers with babies bundled up against the spring chill as residents of the isolated, impoverished nation began observing a three-day holiday.
There was no sense of panic in the North Korean capital, where very few locals have access to international broadcasts and foreign newspaper headlines speculating about an imminent missile launch and detailing the diplomacy under way to try to rein Pyongyang in.
US Secretary of State John Kerry toured the region for four days through yesterday to try to tamp down emotions and coordinate Washington’s response with Beijing, North Korea’s main ally.
Foreign governments have been struggling to assess how seriously to take North Korea’s recent torrent of rhetoric — including warnings of possible nuclear war — as it expresses its anger over continuing US-South Korea military maneuvers just across the border. Officials in South Korea, the US and Japan say intelligence indicates that North Korean officials, fresh off an underground nuclear test in February, are ready to launch a medium-range missile.
North Korea’s own media gave little indication yesterday of how high the tensions are.
The Rodong Sinmun, the Workers’ Party newspaper, featured photographs and coverage of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s overnight visit to the Kumsusan mausoleum to pay respects to his grandfather. There was only one line at the end of the article vowing to bring down the “robber-like US imperialists.”
Kim Jong-un’s renovation of the memorial palace that once served as his grandfather’s presidential offices was opened to the public yesterday, the vast cement plaza replaced by fountains, park benches, trellises and tulips. Stretches of green lawn were marked by small signs indicating which businesses — including the Foreign Trade Bank recently added to a US Department of the Treasury blacklist — and government agencies donated funds to help pay for the landscaping.
Braving the cold, gray weather, people lined up in droves to lay bouquets of fake flowers at the bronze statues of Kim Il-sung and his son, late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, in Pyongyang. It is a scene repeated for every major holiday in North Korea, where loyalty to the Kims and to the state are drummed into citizens from an early age. They lined up at roadside snack stands for rations of peanuts, a holiday tradition. Cheers and screams from a soccer match filled the air.
“Although the situation is tense, people have got bright faces and are very happy,” said Han Kyong-sim, a drink stand worker.
Yesterday was the start of the new year according to North Korea’s juche calendar, which begins with Kim Il-sung’s birth in 1912.
As China waged extensive military exercises off Taiwan, a group of US defense experts in Washington was focused on their own simulation of an eventual — but for now entirely hypothetical — US-China war over the nation. The unofficial what-if game is being conducted on the fifth floor of an office building not far from the White House, and it posits a US military response to a Chinese invasion in 2026. Even though the participants bring a US perspective, they are finding that a US-Taiwan victory, if there is one, could come at a huge cost. “The results are showing that under
WRONG TIMING: The delegation’s trip has not only disappointed Taiwanese, but could send a wrong message to the global community, Tsai Ing-wen said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Andrew Hsia (夏立言) yesterday left with a delegation for a trip to China, drawing fire for visiting at a time when Beijing has been conducting intensive military drills to pressure Taiwan. Before boarding, he told reporters that the delegation would be visiting Taiwanese communities and students in China, and possibly meet with Chinese officials. The Mainland Affairs Council on Tuesday night said that it was not the right time for political party members to visit China, as Beijing has been conducting military exercises since Thursday last week. President Tsai Ing- wen (蔡英文), chairperson of the Democratic
ORDNANCE: Under a five-year plan, the Chungshan Institute would make about 200 Hsiung Feng II and III/IIIE, and Hsiung Sheng missiles, an official said The Ministry of National Defense plans to counter the Chinese navy by producing more than 1,000 anti-ship missiles over the next five years, a defense official familiar with the matter said yesterday. The comments came after China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy began a series of military drills in a simulated naval blockade of Taiwan proper following a visit to Taipei by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Although China has in the past few years rapidly produced many warships and added them to its navy, these large vessels are more suited for warfare on the open sea than in the narrow
The organizers of WorldPride 2025 have canceled the Kaohsiung event because its licensing group, InterPride, demanded that it remove “Taiwan” from the event’s name, they said in a statement yesterday. Kaohsiung was to host WorldPride Taiwan 2025 after being granted the right by the global LGBTQ advocacy group. However, the WorldPride 2025 Taiwan Preparation Committee said that InterPride recently gave “abrupt notice” asking it to change the name of the event and use “Kaohsiung” instead of “Taiwan,” even though it applied for the event using “Taiwan” in its name. The name was initially chosen for its significance to the Taiwanese LGBTQ community, as