Tens of thousands of Pyongyang residents gathered in the capital’s Kim Il-sung Square ON Saturday to laud leader Kim Jong-un’s denunciation of US President Donald Trump.
Students in white shirts and red ties held up the red flag of the ruling Workers’ Party, with a yellow ink brush representing intellectuals, a hammer for the workers, and a sickle for the peasantry.
On one side of the square, a giant poster depicted red missiles plunging towards a collapsing US Capitol with the slogan ‘Korea’s Answer’.
Ranks of workers and residents listened, their fists clenched, as speakers repeated Kim’s denigration of Trump as ‘mentally deranged’ and a ‘dotard’.
Tens of thousands of Pyongyang residents gathered in the capital’s Kim Il-sung Square ON Saturday to laud leader Kim Jong-un’s denunciation of US President Donald Trump
On one side of the square, a giant poster depicted red missiles plunging towards a collapsing US Capitol, with the slogan ‘Korea’s Answer’ (pictured)
Ranks of workers and residents listened, their fists clenched, as speakers repeated Kim’s denigration of Trump as ‘mentally deranged’ and a ‘dotard’ (pictured)
The US president (pictured, Friday) dubbed Kim ‘Rocket Man’ in a speech at the United Nations last week in which he threatened to ‘totally destroy’ the North if it attacked the US or its allies
In a statement on Friday, Kim (pictured) responded by saying Trump would ‘pay dearly’ for his comments and described him as a mentally deranged US dotard’. The supreme leader dusted off the archaic Middle English term, which means a ‘senile old person’
The US president dubbed Kim ‘Rocket Man’ in a speech at the United Nations last week in which he threatened to ‘totally destroy’ the North if it attacked the US or its allies.
In a statement on Friday, Kim responded by saying Trump would ‘pay dearly’ for his comments and described him as a mentally deranged US dotard’.
The supreme leader dusted off the archaic Middle English term, which means a ‘senile old person’.
The aggressive rhetoric between Kim and Trump has become increasingly personal, and raised fears of miscalculation in the standoff over the North’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
‘I would like to put down my pen and take up arms again to perform my duty to defend the fatherland,’ said Pyongyang Mechanical University student Ri Il Ung, 24.
‘Trump is a warmonger and a backstreet gangster. It’s quite ridiculous that such a person could become a politician.’
Such set-piece rallies, organized by the authorities, are a regular feature of political life in Pyongyang, and are intended as a physical demonstration of popular support for the leadership.
Such set-piece rallies, organized by the authorities, are a regular feature of political life in Pyongyang, and are intended as a physical demonstration of popular support for the leadership (Pictured, students march at Saturday’s rally)
The North Korean regime is intensely militaristic and bases its claim to legitimacy on defending the country from external aggression, and analysts say that Trump’s comments are grist to its mill (Pictured, rally participants in Kim Il-sung Square on Saturday)
Pyongyang insists it needs nuclear arms to protect itself from a US invasion, and carried out its sixth atomic test earlier this month, earning itself an eighth set of United Nations Security Council sanctions (Pictured, students march during the mass rally on Saturday)
The North Korean regime is intensely militaristic and bases its claim to legitimacy on defending the country from external aggression, and analysts say that Trump’s comments are grist to its mill.
Kim is also using the drama to reinforce his leadership, they add.
Pyongyang insists it needs nuclear arms to protect itself from a US invasion, and carried out its sixth atomic test earlier this month, earning itself an eighth set of United Nations Security Council sanctions.
It has also tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles that appeared to bring much of the US mainland into range, and regularly issues bloodcurdling threats.
A powerful 3.4 magnitude earthquake rocked North Korea around 3.30am ET, sparking fears the nation may have conducted yet another nuclear test.
A tremor earlier this month was caused by Kim’s sixth nuclear test so it’s no surprise there are fears this is another.
However, South Korea’s weather agency claims it believes the event may have been a natural earthquake.