A ceremony to mark the 24th anniversary of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s election as chairman of the National Defense Commission is held at the Central Hall of Workers in Pyongyang on April 5, 2017. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (KCNA-Yonhap) (END)
Source : Yonhap News Agency
North Korea may have removed all photos of the ruling Kim family from its textbooks out of fear that school children will scribble on them, a U.S.-based media outlet said Sunday.
Radio Free Asia, citing a report carried by Asia Press International, said it recently acquired 75 North Korean primary, middle school and high school textbooks but found no photos of incumbent leader Kim Jong-un or those of his late father and grandfather.
Kim inherited power after the sudden death of his father Kim Jong-il in late 2011. North Korea’s founder Kim Il-sung died in 1994 with control of the country being passed onto his son.
The RFA then said the Japanese media outlet found plenty of materials related to the cult the authorities have built up around the Kim family, yet there was an absence of pictures and any of the three leaders who have ruled the country since the middle of the 20th century.
Related to this, a Japanese expert on the North Korean regime, speculated that Pyongyang ordered that there be no photos to prevent kids from doodling on them. Such an act constitutes a serious offense in the country.
In addition to photos, the Washington-based radio station said there was a considerable amount of material exulting the virtues of Kim Jong-un.
“The first page of the English textbook published in mid-2013 has the script ‘Let’s Become True Sons and Daughters of Respected General Kim Jong-un!’ in it,” the report picked up in Seoul said.
It said such idealization was found in other pages where authorities claimed Kim Jong-un is an “exceptional revolutionary leader” and possessed numerous skills. (Yonhap)
Source : Yonhap News Agency
North Korea is continuing to erect new statues of its dead leaders as part of the country’s effort to strengthen a cult around the ruling Kim dynasty that has controlled the communist country for nearly seven decades, a U.S.-based news report said Sunday.
According to Radio Free Asia, the North is moving to place new statues of the country’s founder Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il in front of the country’s national defense college and a museum dedicated to the two Kims in Pyongyang.
Statues honoring the two dead men were set up in the Ryongsong district of the capital recently, reported the RFA, citing Curtis Melvin, a researcher at the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University.
The analyst said the latest satellite photos showed statues and memorial pillars going up, and that such moves seem to be a key policy decision made by the incumbent leader Kim Jong-un. Kim is the founder’s grandson and took over the running of the country after the death of his father Kim Jong-il in late 2011.
Melvin told the media outlet that the erecting of statues sped up after the sudden death of Kim Jong-il.
Reflecting this data showed that since taking over the helm of the reclusive country, Kim Jong-un ordered more than 250 memorials celebrating Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il to be set up nationwide, with about 35 statues of the two men being erected so far.
South Korean watchers said creating a personality cult around the dynasty is designed to legitimize Kim Jong-un’s rule over the population, who are taught to follow orders given by their leader without question. (Yonhap)
Source : The Korea Herald
A North Korean art troupe performs at a Pyongyang theater on June 19, 2016, in this photo released by the North’s Korean Central News Agency, to celebrate the 52nd anniversary of the country’s late former leader Kim Jong-il’s efforts to build up the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap) (END)
Source : Yonhap News Agency
This file photo from North Korea’s last ruling party congress in October 1980 shows the North’s then President Kim Il-sung (L) and Kim Jong-il, his son, who was head of the National Defense Commission at the time, to his left. The North’s media said on April 27, 2016, that the party congress will open in Pyongyang on May 6. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap) (END)
Source : Yonhap News Agency
Former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il ordered the development of a satellite in 1987, a former senior North Korean official said in a recently published memoir.
Kim gave the order as he said North Korea should be capable of hitting the United States, said Kim Duk-hong, former deputy head of research at North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party.
“There is nothing to be scared about once we develop a satellite,” Kim quoted the former North Korean leader as saying in the memoir, citing documents that he accessed while he was in North Korea.
Kim Jong-il told scientists to develop a satellite “no matter what,” said Kim, who defected to South Korea in 1997.
The defector said North Korea test-launched a satellite in August 1997, a decade after Kim Jong-il gave the instructions due to an economic crisis.
Kim’s memoir gained media attention as North Korea has vowed to launch a series of satellites as part of its space development program.
There is lingering speculation that Pyongyang may launch a long-range rocket in the coming months to put what it claims is a satellite into orbit.
Seoul and Washington view a satellite launch as a cover for testing the North’s ballistic missile technology, which is banned under U.N. resolutions.
Experts said there is a technological similarity between a rocket launch and a long-range missile test. They also said a rocket can carry either a satellite or a warhead and the technology in launching a satellite could be diverted for military purposes.
The North claimed it successfully put a satellite into orbit in April 2009. However, South Korea and the U.S. said at the time that the launch was to test North Korea’s ballistic missile technology and that no object entered orbit.
The launch drew U.N. condemnation, prompting North Korea to conduct a second nuclear test a month later in retaliation.
North Korea’s founder Kim Il-sung, the late grandfather of the current leader Kim Jong-un, publicly said that North Korea had no intention or capability to build nuclear weapons.
North Korea, however, was obsessed with its nuclear weapons program after setting up a research institute on atomic and nuclear physics in 1955.
Kim Jong-il, the late father of Kim Jong-un, gave medals and television sets to scientists and engineers after receiving a report in April 1991 that there was a breakthrough in the development of nuclear weapons.
Kim Jong-il said at that time that “today is the day when my lifelong wish came true,” the defector said.
The defector also said the North’s founder was angry at Soviet scientists as they returned home after working in the North’s Yongbyon nuclear complex in the 1980s.
The founder blamed the Soviet scientists for just eating away rice, a key staple food for both South and North Koreans, the defector said.
The defector came to South Korea with Hwang Jang-yop, a former senior North Korean official who taught the country’s “juche” philosophy of self-reliance to Kim Jong-il. Hwang died in 2010. (Yonhap)
The Korea Herald
In this photo provided by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency on Sept. 7, 2015, North Koreans attend a ceremony to unveil statues of North Korea’s founder, Kim Il-sung, and his son and successor, Kim Jong-il, in the city of Nampho on the North’s west coast the previous day. North Korea has erected the statues ahead of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea on Oct. 10. (Yonhap) (END)
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