When North Korea broke a three-week silence on leader Kim Jong-un’s public activity yesterday, it offered no clue as to where he had been during a period of intense global speculation about his health and whereabouts, or why he was hidden from the public for so long.
Instead, state media simply showed him surrounded by aides and appearing confident at a gleaming fertilizer factory that is believed by outside experts to be part of a secret nuclear weapons program.
While much remains a mystery about Kim’s condition, the abrupt re-emergence of the relaxed and smiling leader was an obvious choreography of key messages from the secretive government: Kim is the supreme leader in full control of a drive to improve the impoverished country’s food security and economy, amid tough international sanctions and the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Photo: AFP
The official Rodong Sinmun yesterday devoted three of its six pages to touting Kim’s leadership, crediting him for what it called “prosperity and self-reliance.”
Reuters could not verify the accuracy of official accounts or the authenticity of pictures from the event.
The sprawling complex is the result of Kim’s vision to build a modern factory that would support agricultural production and make progress in automating its chemical industry, former North Korean premier Pak Pong-ju said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony where Kim reappeared.
Kim’s appearance at the Sunchon fertilizer plant, which official media said occurred on Friday, was an example of “field guidance” — a key part of Kim’s public persona, where he presides over a major industrial or social project event, or at military drills involving strategic weapons, such as ballistic missiles or tactical warfare.
His second public visit this year to the site 50km north of the capital, Pyongyang, included a sizeable audience of officials from the army, the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea and the local community. Many wore masks in an apparent precaution against the coronavirus.
“Agricultural production is a top priority, which has a direct impact on the lives of the people,” said Koh Yu-hwan, president of the Korea Institute for National Unification, a South Korean government think-tank.
Kim’s sudden return was “a strategy to be in the center of world news without resorting to nuclear or missile tests,” Koh said.
The phosphate fertilizer factory in Sunchon, under construction since June 2017, has received much attention from North Korea’s leaders.
International observers have said that the plant is part of the North’s clandestine pursuit of uranium extraction for use in nuclear weapons, as the mineral can be a byproduct of making phosphate fertilizer.
There is strong evidence the factory is involved in uranium extraction, said a report this month by the California-based James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.
MILITARY BOOST: The procurement was planned after Washington recommended that Taiwan increase its stock of air defense missiles, a defense official said yesterday Taiwan is planning to order an additional four PAC-3 MSE systems and up to 500 missiles in response to an increasing number of missile sites on China’s east coast, a defense official said yesterday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the proposed order would be placed using the defense procurement special budget, adding that about NT$1 trillion (US$32,88 billion) has been allocated for the budget. The proposed acquisition would include launchers, missiles, and a lower tier air and missile defense radar system, they said The procurement was planned after the US military recommended that Taiwan increase
POLITICAL AGENDA: Beijing’s cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival events are part of a ‘cultural united front’ aimed at promoting unification with Taiwan, academics said Local authorities in China have been inviting Taiwanese to participate in cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations centered around ideals of “family and nation,” a move Taiwanese academics said politicizes the holiday to promote the idea of “one family” across the Taiwan Strait. Sources said that China’s Fujian Provincial Government is organizing about 20 cross-strait-themed events in cities including Quanzhou, Nanping, Sanming and Zhangzhou. In Zhangzhou, a festival scheduled for Wednesday is to showcase Minnan-language songs and budaixi (布袋戲) glove puppetry to highlight cultural similarities between Taiwan and the region. Elsewhere, Jiangsu Province is hosting more than 10 similar celebrations in Taizhou, Changzhou, Suzhou,
COGNITIVE WARFARE: Chinese fishing boats transmitting fake identification signals are meant to test Taiwan’s responses to different kinds of perceived incursions, a report said Chinese vessels are transmitting fake signals in Taiwan’s waters as a form of cognitive warfare, testing Taipei’s responses to various types of incursions, a report by the Institute for the Study of War said on Friday. Several Chinese fishing vessels transmitted fake automatic identification system (AIS) signals in Taiwan’s waters last month, with one mimicking a Russian warship and another impersonating a Chinese law enforcement vessel, the report said. Citing data from Starboard Maritime Intelligence, the report said that throughout August and last month, the Chinese fishing boat Minshiyu 06718 (閩獅漁06718) sailed through the Taiwan Strait while intermittently transmitting its own AIS
CHINESE INFILTRATION: Medical logistics is a lifeline during wartime and the reported CCP links of a major logistics company present a national security threat, an expert said The government would bolster its security check system to prevent China from infiltrating the nation’s medical cold chain, a national security official said yesterday. The official, who wished to stay anonymous, made the remarks after the Chinese-language magazine Mirror Media (鏡周刊) reported that Pharma Logistics (嘉里醫藥物流) is in charge of the medical logistics of about half of the nation’s major hospitals, including National Taiwan University Hospital and Taipei Veterans General Hospital. The company’s parent, Kerry TJ Logistics Co (嘉里大榮物流), is associated with the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the
RSS