New pictures of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un riding a white horse through a winter landscape to the summit of Mount Paektu, a sacred peak for North Koreans, have fueled speculation that the young leader could be set to make a major policy announcement.
The images released by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) were accompanied by a gushing text that noted the “noble glitters” in Kim’s eyes, and labeled his snowy, horseback ride “a great event of weighty importance” for the nation.
Accompanying officials were left convinced that “there will be a great operation to strike the world with wonder again and make a step forward in the Korean revolution,” the agency said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The hike might signal a new policy direction for the North, analysts said.
“In the past, Kim has climbed Mount Paektu ahead of major political decisions,” said Shin Beom-chul, an analyst at the Asan Institute of Policy Studies in Seoul.
Kim hiked to the peak in December 2017 before launching diplomatic overtures that led to his first summit with US President Donald Trump, but negotiations have been gridlocked since their second summit collapsed in February, and the North has been raising tensions through a series of missile tests.
The sight of North Korean leaders riding white horses across snow-capped peaks — and in particular Mount Paektu — were a dominant theme of photographs, posters and portraits of Kim’s father, Kim Jong-il and grandfather, Kim Il-sung.
According to the images present an imperial motif of a leader protecting the cultural and ideological purity of the nation from corrupt, outside forces, said B.R. Myers, a professor at Dongseo University in Busan, South Korea, who specializes in North Korean propaganda,
Kim Jong-un also visited the site of a giant construction project in nearby Samjiyon County and blamed US-led international sanctions for his country’s hardships, KCNA reported.
“The situation of the country is difficult owing to the ceaseless sanctions and pressure by the hostile forces and there are many hardships and trials facing us,” Kim Jong-un was quoted as saying.
North Korea is under multiple sets of UN sanctions for its nuclear and missile programs.
Pyongyang and Washington this month restarted working-level talks in Sweden, only for it to quickly break down, with the North blaming the US for not giving up its “old attitude.”
Crowds in Bangladesh are flocking to snap photographs with an unlikely social media star — an albino buffalo with flowing blond hair nicknamed “Donald Trump” that is due to be sacrificed within days. Owner Zia Uddin Mridha, 38, said his brother named the 700kg bull over its flowing helmet of hair resembling the signature look of the US president. “My younger brother picked this name because of the buffalo’s extraordinary hair,” he said at his farm in Narayanganj, just outside the capital, Dhaka. Mridha said that a constant stream of curious visitors — social media fans, onlookers and children — have come throughout
It began as a satirical online project. Now millions of young people in India are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration. A parody political party called the Cockroach Janta Party, with the insect as its symbol, has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humor into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach — known for its ability to survive harsh conditions — as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance. The online movement’s rise has been unusually rapid. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)
HOTTER: While Indians are accustomed to summer heat, climate change has caused northwestern India to warm faster than other parts of the country, an academic said Roads and markets have emptied during afternoons and some farmers have switched to nighttime work to avoid scorching temperatures as a heat wave grips large parts of India. The India Meteorological Department forecast maximum temperatures for yesterday of about 45°C in the capital, New Delhi, where authorities have opened temporary “cooling zones” to help people cope. The weather department warned that conditions would likely persist across several northern regions in the coming days, with temperatures staying well above seasonal averages. Authorities urged people to stay indoors during the hottest hours and take precautions against heat-related illnesses. India declares a heat wave whenever maximum temperatures
A Hong Kong astronaut is to join a Chinese space mission for the first time as part of a three-person crew launching today, as Beijing edges closer to its goal of landing people on the moon. The Tiangong space station — crewed by teams of three astronauts that are typically rotated every six months — is the crown jewel of China’s space program, boosted by billions in state investment in a bid to catch up with the US and Russia. The Shenzhou-23 mission is to blast off at 11:08pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, carrying three astronauts to
RSS