This article, by corporatedispatch.com editor Tonio Galea appeared first onThe CorporateDispatch.Com Week edition published on October 26th by CorporateDispatch ePublishing
Symbolism has always been part and parcel of politics., both for the local or international audience. It’s not just about the speeches: symbolism plays an important role.
If a political leader decides to appear in public without a tie or wearing a certain colour, in 9 cases out of 10 there will be a message that one wants to deliver. Even more so if this is done for an international audience. And hence the recent display of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un riding a white horse along snow-covered Mount Paektu. The mountain, the highest point on the Korean Peninsula, is sacred to North Koreans, and both it and the white horse are symbols associated with the Kim family’s dynastic rule. It was announced that the photos were taken after the mountain’s first snowfall of the year.
It was a carefully choreographed display with precise intentions in every aspect of it aimed at both local and international audiences. North Korea has always been at the forefront of such symbolic displays from the launching of various missiles to what is said and shown on Pyongyang’s news bulletin. In North Korea, the world’s most isolated country, nothing happens without a reason no matter how insignificant it might seem at first glance.
A message is being delivered to someone somewhere. This was not the first time the world caught a glimpse of Kim on Mount Paektu. In fact, it was his third. Kim previously visited Mount Paektu before executing his uncle, considered his right-hand man, in 2013 and again before entering into diplomacy with South Korea and the U.S. in 2018.
These latest photos were issued days after North Korea’s first nuclear talks with the U.S. in more than seven months fell apart. The lavish imagery in the report is likely meant to both evoke nostalgia and exude power.
A white horse in North Korea is an important propaganda symbol that has been used before by Kim, his sister and his father before them. Even before them, Kim Il Sung, the founder of the North Korean state and Kim’s grandfather, according to the North’s official narrative, rode a white horse while fighting Japanese colonial rulers. In Kim Il Sung official memoirs there is a whole chapter dedicated to a white horse and horseback riding plays an important role in the Kim dynasty, as can be witnessed by the various paintings and statues in the country depicting the horse as a symbol of strength and progress.
Mount Paektu carries a lot of weight in the mythical lore surrounding Kim’s bloodline.
Mount Paektu was the place where Kim Il-sung had an anti-Japan guerrilla base during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. The official biography of the current leader’s father, Kim Jong-il, says he was born on Paektu when a double rainbow filled the skies. Last year, Kim took South Korean president Moon Jae-in to the top of the mountain as part of a historic summit.
It was unclear what the operation might involve though most analysts agree that it was staged to precede a major announcement or event and symbolic of defiance. What exactly this is going to be, is anybody’s guess, but it will most definitely be connected to the current state of affairs with the country’s nuclear and missile program and the economy.
In fact, KCNA reported that immediately after Mount Paektu, the North Korean leader visited the nearby city of Samjiyon, currently one of the country’s most high-profile construction projects.
