North Korea’s ruler Kim Jong Un has climbed the highest mountain in the country, on the back of a white horse, according to the state agency KCNA. Several media published the photos provided by KCNA, on which the riding Kim can be seen. In the background, a snow-covered landscape can be seen. According to KCNA, this is the revered Mount Paektu.
The Ride on the Mountain is a „major event of significant importance in the history of the Korean Revolution,“ according to a KCNA report released today. Kim, it goes on to say, remembers with „great emotion the path of the arduous struggle which he laid for the construction of the most powerful land with faith and will, as firm as Mount Paektu.“
„A great operation“
It is not the first time that Kim climbs the 2,750-meter summit. In 2015, he got about „valuable spiritual energy,“ as state media wrote. In 2018 he joined the mountain together with South Korea’s President Moon Jae In. The volcano on the border with China plays an important role in Korean mythology. He is considered the birthplace of Dangun, the legendary founder of the first Korean kingdom more than 4,000 years ago.
Familiarists of Kim are convinced that the ruler is „a great operation that will astonish the world,“ said the state media. Which procedure is exactly, but is unclear. Usually, Kim always climbs the volcano before making political decisions.
Symbolism of „defiance“
Speaking to Reuters news agency, North Korea expert Joshua Pollack of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California said the gesture was „defiance“. Kim mediates that he will withstand international sanctions and pressure on his nuclear weapons and missile programs. „The quest for sanction relief is over. Nothing is explicitly mentioned, but new expectations are set for the upcoming policy course for 2020. “
Other experts believe that it could be about economic concerns in North Korea. Even from a space launch is the speech. North Korea could thus demonstrate its economic and technological strength in a less provocative manner than by testing a long-range missile.
