Photographs showing North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un inspecting a truck factory have been released to coincide with the start of President Donald Trump’s 12-day tour of Asia.
The totalitarian regime’s news agency released the undated pictures today amid an ongoing nuclear standoff with the US that has seen Trump and Kim exchange increasingly bombastic insults and threats.
Surrounded by fawning officials carrying notebooks to record the wisdom of the 33-year-old autocrat, Kim can be seen laughing as he walks through a factory in a black greatcoat.
In one photograph, he rests his hand on a chair as he speaks with his underlings near ancient-looking machinery.
He appears to have a cigarette in his right hand as he listens to his obsequious henchmen.
Surrounded by fawning officials carrying notebooks to record the wisdom of the 33-year-old autocrat, Kim can be seen laughing as he walks through a factory in a black greatcoat
In one photograph, he rests his hand on a chair as he speaks with his underlings near ancient-looking machinery. He appears to have a cigarette in his right hand as he listens to his obsequious henchmen
In another image, he can be seen walking close to a lorry with his hands in his pockets while looking into the distance in a scene reminiscent of the pariah state’s propaganda posters
In another image, he can be seen walking close to a lorry with his hands in his pockets while looking into the distance in a scene reminiscent of the pariah state’s propaganda posters.
His purpose for visiting the March 16 Factory – named after the day it was founded in 1977 – was to call for the country to create a modern vehicle production industry.
The March 16 factory would be the ‘mother base’, he said.
According to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, Kim said the factory shows ‘the wise guidance and meticulous care’ – ie, his father and grandfather, Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung.
He also said the workers at the factory had contributed to the ‘prosperity’ of North Korea by creating lots of trucks, but it needs to be upgraded to ‘fully meet the increasing demand of the national economy for transport and build up the country’s defense capability’.
The release of the images comes as North Korea ruled out talks and threatened to increase its nuclear arsenal in a fresh warning to Trump’s administration as the president set off on his marathon tour of Asia.
Trump departed for his first presidential trip to Asia yesterday, with tensions over North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats looming large. He is due to arrive in South Korea on Tuesday, after first visiting Japan.
The KCNA news agency said in a commentary that the US should be disabused of the ‘absurd idea’ that Pyongyang would succumb to international sanctions and give up its nuclear weapons, adding that it is in ‘the final stage for completing nuclear deterrence’.
The release of the images comes as North Korea ruled out talks and threatened to increase its nuclear arsenal in a fresh warning to Trump’s administration as the president set off on his marathon tour of Asia. Pictured: Trump boarding Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base yesterday
The totalitarian regime’s news agency released the undated pictures today amid an ongoing nuclear stand-off with the US that has seen Trump and Kim exchange increasingly bombastic insults and threats. Pictured: Trump arriving in Hawaii before embarking on his Asia tour
Pictured: US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump look down into the water at the World War II wreckage of the USS Arizona, sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor, at the Arizona Memorial in Honolulu, Hawaii
‘It had better stop daydreaming of denuclearisation talks with us’, said the commentary titled ‘Stop dreaming a daydream’.
‘Our self-defensive nuclear treasure sword will be sharpened evermore unless the US hostile policy toward the DPRK is abolished once and for all’, it said, using an acronym for the official name of North Korea.
The White House said Trump will deliver a speech at South Korea’s National Assembly and urge ‘common resolve in the face of shared threat’.
But there is widespread concern in South Korea that the US president’s visit might worsen the situation if Trump fails to rein in his fierce rhetoric.
Trump and the North’s leader Kim Jong-Un have traded insults and threats of war in recent months.
‘Because of his tendency to veer off the script, many Koreans are worried that he may let loose’, Professor Yang Moo-Jin of the University of North Korean Studies told AFP.
Some 500 protesters took to the streets in Seoul Saturday, chanting slogans and waving banners as they accused Trump of bringing the Korean peninsula to the brink of war.
‘No Trump, No War’, read one of the banners, while others portrayed the US President wearing a Nazi uniform.
Aerial drills conducted over South Korea by two U.S. strategic bombers have raised tensions in recent weeks. Pictured: B-1Bs taking off from Guam for a similar drill last month
![Speaking yesterday morning, Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said: 'The US imperialists are making last-ditch efforts to check the dynamic advance of the DPRK [North Korea] by deploying their nuclear strategic assets in succession, but its army and people are never frightened at such moves.' It came after the US flew bombers over the Korean Peninsula on Thursday. Pictured: A B-1B Lancer taking off from Guam last month for a similar drill](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/11/04/09/45F8329200000578-5049219-Speaking_early_this_morning_Pyongyang_s_official_Korean_Central_-a-31_1509789506997.jpg)
Speaking yesterday morning, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said: ‘The US imperialists are making last-ditch efforts to check the dynamic advance of the DPRK [North Korea] by deploying their nuclear strategic assets in succession, but its army and people are never frightened at such moves.’ It came after the US flew bombers over the Korean Peninsula on Thursday. Pictured: A B-1B Lancer taking off from Guam last month for a similar drill
Nearby, a rival group of some 100 Trump supporters, including many military veterans, chanted: ‘Welcome to Korea, We believe in Trump’.
Trump, who dismissed direct talks with Pyongyang as ‘waste of time’, will meet with President Moon Jae-In, who came to power early this year advocating for engagement with Pyongyang, a stance denounced as ‘appeasement’ by Trump.
Professor Koh Yu-Hwan at Dongguk University, a leading policy advisor to the government, said Seoul expected Trump to avoid putting Moon in a quandary by renewing pugnacious threats against the North, particularly with South Korea hosting the Winter Olympics in February next year.
Moon has had to dial back his policy of engagement with the North in the face of Pyongyang’s persistent nuclear and missile tests.
Tensions are high over Pyongyang’s ballistic missile and atomic programmes, which in recent months have included ICBM tests and its sixth nuclear blast. Pictured: The launch of a Hwasong-14 ICBM in July
Trump has warned of ‘fire and fury’ in response to Pyongyang’s threats, and derisively dubbed Kim ‘Rocket Man’, who responded by calling him a ‘dotard’. Pictured: North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un inspecting a bomb in September
Aerial drills conducted over South Korea by two US strategic bombers have raised tensions in recent weeks.
In a display of golf diplomacy, Trump will also play a round of golf with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The two leaders also played together in Florida earlier this year.
Trump will have a state call with the Imperial Family at Akasaka Palace during his visit. Abe and Trump will meet families of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea.
Joined by his wife Melania on part of the trip, Trump’s tour of Asia is the longest by an American president since George H.W. Bush in 1992. Besides Japan, he will visit South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.