KIM Jong-un appears to have BLOWN UP a major monument in North Korea’s capital that symbolised hope for unity of the whole nation.
The dramatic move is thought to have been a deliberate choice by the dictator, intended to reflect the sincerity of his wish to abandon a policy of peaceful unification with his county’s “enemy”, the South.
NK NewsA satellite image taken on January 8 appears to show the ‘reunification arch’ standing tall[/caption]
NK NewsAn image captured on January 23 seems to indicate the arch has been removed[/caption]
GettyThe Unification Arch on the outskirts of North Korea’s capital features two women holding an emblem of the entire Korean Peninsula[/caption]
Chilling satellite pictures taken on January 8 and later on January 23 appear to show the arch monument, called The Monument to the Three Charters for National Reunification, was removed from the North Korean city of Pyongyang.
The arch is visible in the first image but not in the second, according to a report by an online outlet that monitors North Korea, NK News.
In the picture taken today, January 23, a large dark dent in the ground looks to have cropped up where the landmark once stood.
The Sun could not independently confirm that the Arch of Reunification has been demolished.
It remains unclear precisely when or how the monument may have been removed, but it was last seen standing in a photograph taken on January 19.
The apparent demolition comes after Kim called the arch an “eye-sore” on January 15 and ordered that it be “completely removed … to completely eliminate such concepts as ‘reunification,’ ‘reconciliation’ and ‘fellow countrymen’ from the national history of our Republic”.
He also ordered that the constitution be amended to call the South a “primary foe and invariable principal enemy,” official media reported.
Completed in 2001, the iconic landmark stood about 100ft tall and was 200ft wide.
It depicted two women, one from North Korea and one from South Korea, whose hands came together at the arch’s centre to hold an emblem of the outline of the entire Korean Peninsula, according to a now-deleted page on the DPRK-run website Naenara.
The page stated: “It highlights that the Koreans are a homogeneous nation with one territory, the same blood and one language from ancient times, and that all the fellow countrymen should turn out in the struggle for national reunification, true to the three charters.”
The three charters of national reunification, proposed by the former president of North Korea Kim Il Sung in 1972, are independence, peaceful reunification, and national unity.
Tensions between the North and South flared following intensifying military manoeuvres by the South Korean and US militaries in response to weapons testing by North Korea.
Kim Jong-un‘s sister Kim Yo-Jong this month vowed to unleash an “immediate military strike” on the South at the “slightest provocation”.
Days later, the supreme leader of North Korea threatened to annihilate his country’s “principal enemy”, claiming to have “no intention of avoiding war”, according to state media.
North Korea fired a ballistic missile off its east coast on January 14 in its first provocative launch of 2024.
Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said at the time: “Our military detected one suspected intermediate-range ballistic missile launched from the Pyongyang area towards the East Sea around at 14:55.”
Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin have since agreed to form a “New World Order” and unite against the United States.
The North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the two countries wanted to further their strategic and tactical cooperation to defend their core interests and establish a “new multi-polarised international order”.
AFPNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-un recently called the South his country’s ‘primary foe’, official media reports[/caption]
It is unclear when the monument may have been removed between January 8 and 23
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