- North Korean media released photos of dictator Kim Jong Un riding a white horse on a symbolically important mountain this week.
- Photos of the leader there usually precede major announcements from North Korean leadership; experts believe that this time, it could herald a frightening military advancement.
- The photos are laden with symbolism, from the white horse, to the location, to Kim Jong Un’s clothing choices.
- Visit Business Insider’s home page for more stories.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had a photoshoot on a white horse on Mt. Paektu, a symbolically important location for his family and for North Korea.
Kim Jong Un has had similar trips and photo shoots before; during one such trip, North Korean state media claimed that the rotund dictator climbed Mt. Paektu, while photos of the event showed him in leather business shoes.
Of course, the photo caused a stir on Twitter, with some Photoshopping the pictures into prestige drama ads for Netflix:
https://twitter.com/DaveSchmerler/status/1184554555725496321?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Or bringing up a similar winter photoshoot:
#KimJongUn pic.twitter.com/rlbe4RYKuS
— Hope Jahren (@HopeJahren) October 16, 2019
But apart from looking faintly ridiculous to the outside world, the new photos from the Hermit Kingdom are shot through with meaning, according to experts. Read on to see what Kim Jong Un's snowy ride means.
Propaganda images are nothing new for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The North Korean propaganda machine is an important part of the regime.
Photos of the North Korean leader climbing the mountain on horseback is "a great event of weighty importance in the history of the Korean revolution," according to KCNA, the North Korean state media.
North Korean propaganda is nothing new; in fact, it's everywhere in the country. From posters showing the US's evil aggression toward North Korea, to Kim's winter wonderland, controlling the message in the hermit kingdom is vital in order to keep citizens obedient and in the dark about the rest of the world.
Kim rides an immaculate, snow-white horse to match his surroundings. But it's not just about equine aesthetics.
The white steed upon which Kim Jong-Un is seated is reminiscent of the legendary creatures Chollima, a winged horse, and Mallima, a horse with incredible speend and indurance, according to Reuters.
Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Un's grandfather, was also supposedly visited by a white steed during his guerilla days, according to The Washington Post.
There are postage stamps of Kim Jong Il riding white horses on Mt. Paektu, according to Michael Madden, a North Korea researcher for the Stimson Center, but "no one's had the balls to take a horse up there," he said.
Kim Jong Un resembles his grandfather physically, and has had a number of propaganda photos mirroring his grandfather's. Kim Jong Un's resemblance of his grandfather allows him to "project power and gravitas," Madsen told The Guardian in 2014.
Kim Jong Un isn't the only person harkening the past in the photo shoot, though; in other photos, his sister, Kim Yo Jong, is riding a horse like the one her father used to ride, and is dressed like her grandmother, Kim Il Sung's first wife Kim Jong Suk, who is considered the mother of North Korea and holds vital importance in the country's mythology.
Mt. Paektu is a loaded location for the Kim family — and North Koreans.
Mt. Paektu is an important place for the Kim family, as it cements their status as the rightful rulers of North Korea.
It's said to be the "location of Kim Il Sung's mythical guerrilla base," Joshua Pollack, a North Korea researcher at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies told Reuters. Kim Il Sung, the current leader's grandfather, was the first leader of North Korea, and the country's mythology sees him as a great guerilla fighter against imperilalist Japan, which ruled the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
Of this latest photoshoot, Pollack said, "The location and the clothes are meant to evoke the founder's legacy."
And according to North Korean state media, Mt. Paektu is where Kim Jong Un's father, Kim Jong Il, was born, although it's more likely he was born in the Soviet Union. It's also, according to legend, where Dagun, the leader of the first Korean kingdom, was born thousands of years ago, according to the BBC.
There are two Kim family compounds nearby, including one built by Kim Jong Il on Mt. Paektu, Madden told Insider. Somewhere in the vicinity - perhaps at that compound - is the secure facility Madden referred to as the "North Korean panic room," where the Kim family can head in case of disaster. They also have the option of crossing the nearby border into China.
While the photos may look absurd, they're intended to have a very serious message.
"This is a statement, symbolic of defiance," Pollack told The Washington Post. "The pursuit of sanctions relief is over. Nothing is made explicit here, but it starts to set new expectations about the coming course of policy for 2020."
North Koreans have suffered from international sanctions due to its nuclear program; the photos seem to show that North Korea will not bow to international pressure.
According to multiple reports, Kim Jong Un has visted Mt. Paektu prior to major announcements or policy decisions before. For example, a 2017 trip came just days after the North Korean military launched its largest-ever intercontinental ballistic missile.
Madden told Insider that the photo shoot most likely portends a military announcement of some kind, possibly that North Korea and China are announcing a long-term strategic aggreement. "A member of the Chinese Military Commission is in North Korea right now, and [talks are] going very, very, very well," he told Insider.
Madden told Insider that "North Korea in 2020 is either going to launch a rocket, or announce that they have attained the ability to perform sub-critical nuclear tests," and the photos could be in advance of such an announcement.
Whatever the announcement is, it's almost certainly not about making concessions to the US or any of its allies, Madden said.
"North Korea has massively regressed in the past few months," in terms of foreign policy "and I have no idea why," Madden noted.