North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong-il has recently visited an army unit, the North's state media reported Sunday, in what appears to be his first public appearance since Pyongyang conducted multiple missile tests early last month.
Speculation has been rife about Kim's whereabouts, as the North's official media outlets haven't reported on his public activities since Pyongyang defied repeated international warnings and test-fired seven missiles on July 5.
Kim "inspected the stock-breeding center of the KPA Unit 757," the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. KPA refers to the (North) Korean People's Army.
The report did not say when Kim visited the military unit, but the visit is believed to have been made recently, given that he usually makes an inspection visit to army bases a few times a month.
The KCNA report said Kim visited the Unit 757's rabbit and goat farms, and expressed his "great satisfaction" at their ability to mass-produce meat and milt products for servicemen.
"As our country has many mountains, it is possible to raise goats and rabbits and other grass-eating animals in every part of it, he noted, calling for more dynamically conducting this work in a mass movement to bring about a signal leap forward in turning out livestock products," the report said.
The 64-year-old North Korean leader pursues the "songun" or military-first policy, which subordinates everything to the North's 1.1-million-member armed forces, the backbone of his iron-fisted rule.
South Korean and Japanese media agencies published various speculative reports on Kim's whereabouts, with most of them saying Kim might have isolated himself to quietly watch how the global uproar over the North's missile standoff develops.
In 2003, Kim's public activities were not reported for 50 days after his communist government quit the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, heightening tension in the region. There were some press reports even suggesting that Kim might be in an underground bunker to avoid a U.S. precision strike. Others said he might have left for a honeymoon with a new wife.
North Korean watchers said heavy flood damage to North Korea in mid-July might have thrown Kim into a further fix, forcing him to shy away from the public. The torrential monsoon rains killed 549 people and left 295 others missing, according to a pro-Pyongyang newspaper in Japan.
The North's missile tests prompted the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution slapping weapons-related sanctions on North Korea. The North, which argued the missile tests were part of a military exercise, had said earlier that any sanctions placed on it would be taken as a declaration of war.
The North proposed bilateral talks with the U.S. to resolve the missile dispute, but the U.S. rejected the offer, saying the matter should be dealt with within the framework of six-party nuclear talks.
The six-party talks, aimed at ending the North’s nuclear weapons program, have been stalled since November, as the North protested separate U.S. sanctions on it. The participants in the deadlocked talks are the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan.
Seoul, Aug. 13 (Yonhap News)
N. Korean leader makes first public appearance since missile tests: report |
