Pyongyang: Officials to the left of him, generals to the right, and in the middle of mounting tensions over his nuclear ambitions, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un on Thursday opened a prestige housing project with tens of thousands of his adoring citizens looking on. Completion of the sprawling Ryomyong Street development, just down a wide avenue from the mausoleum where Kim’s grandfather Kim Il-Sung and father Kim Jong-Il lie in state, was repeatedly promised in time for Saturday’s 105th anniversary of the birth of the North’s founder.
North Korean authorities seek to present their isolated, impoverished country as prosperous and modern, and international media outlets were invited for the occasion. Soldiers, officials and citizens packed a plaza from early morning, waiting for hours before Kim led the delegation onto the dais. Prime Minister Pak Pong-Ju lauded Kim, saying the project was a demonstration of “the ‘do or die’ spirit of our people and army who are willing to implement the Party’s orders in all cases”, he said, and “a victory against imperialists’ sanctions”. The North is under multiple sets of United Nations sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes and tensions have soared in recent weeks.
A barrage of recent North Korean missile tests has stoked fears in Washington that Pyongyang is moving closer to its goal of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the US mainland – something US President Donald Trump has said “won’t happen”. Shinzo Abe, prime minister of US ally Japan – in whose exclusive economic zone three North Korean missiles landed in recent weeks, warned Thursday that Pyongyang may have the capacity to launch a warhead loaded with sarin nerve gas.
There is speculation Pyongyang might conduct a sixth nuclear test, or another missile launch, to co-incide with the Kim Il-Sung anniversary – specialist US website 38North described its Punggye-ri test site as “primed and ready” yesterday – and Trump has dispatched an aircraft carrier group to the Korean peninsula. “We are sending an armada. Very powerful,” he told the Fox Business Network. “We have submarines. Very powerful. Far more powerful than the aircraft carrier.” “He is doing the wrong thing,” he added of Kim. “He’s making a big mistake.” The North has reiterated its constant refrain that it is ready for “war” with the US.
The 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty and Pyongyang says that it needs nuclear weapons to defend itself against a possible US invasion. Last week’s US missile strike on Syria vindicated its stance, it said at the weekend. (AFP)
