North Korea yesterday marked the anniversary of the birth of its founder, Kim Il-sung, in subdued fashion, with mask-wearing citizens placing flowers before his statue in Pyongyang as the country imposes strict anti-coronavirus measures.
The grandfather of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was born 108 years ago and April 15 is the most important date in North Korea’s annual political calendar, where it is known as the Day of the Sun.
However, Pyongyang has imposed tight restrictions against the pandemic, which has swept the world since emerging in neighboring China, closing its borders and for a time quarantining thousands of its own citizens as well as hundreds of foreigners, and insists that it has not seen a single case.
Photo: AP
Pyongyang residents arrived at Mansu Hill, where giant bronze statues of Kim Il-sung and his son and successor, Kim Jong-il, gaze out over the capital, to lay flowers at their base.
However, they came in much smaller groups than the sometimes hundreds-strong detachments of workers or soldiers seen on previous occasions.
“The great president Kim Il-sung will be with us forever,” a floral frieze in front of the effigies read.
In normal times hundreds of baskets would stand in front of the statues by mid-morning, with a thick layer of flowers placed at their base, but far fewer were to be seen at the same time yesterday.
At times the festivities can be held on a grand scale, including military parades in 2012 and 2017, when the nuclear-armed country shows off its arsenal to the world.
On Tuesday, Seoul said that Pyongyang had fired several cruise missiles toward the sea, in what analysts saw as a demonstration of the breadth of its arsenal.
The missiles traveled over the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, before coming down in the water, it said.
The North also flew multiple Sukhoi-variant and MiG fighter jets that fired multiple air-to-ground rockets above the eastern coastal city of Wonsan, a South Korean government spokesman added.
However, unusually, the North Korean state media yesterday carried no reports about the launch.
This year, North Korea has canceled several elements of the annual commemorations, including the Pyongyang Marathon, normally its biggest tourist money-spinner of the year.
State media have also made no mention of the Kimilsungia Festival, an exhibition of the purple orchid named after Kim Il-sung, who died in 1994, but is still officially considered the country’s “eternal president.”
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