Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol-ju attending the gala - AFP
Kim
Jong-un’s wife has made a rare public appearance alongside the North
Korean leader at a celebration of the pariah state’s advancing nuclear
capabilities.
Ri
Sol-ju was photographed at a gala banquet for the engineers who
conducted country’s most powerful nuclear test to date last Sunday.
The
dictator’s wife has barely been seen in public in recent years,
prompting speculation she may have given birth to the couple’s third
child recently.
In
2016 she didn't make a public appearance for more than seven months,
initially raising fears she may have fallen from favour. She emerged
again in December to accompany her husband at an air combat training
competition.
Kim and Ri inspecting the Rungna People's Pleasure Ground in Pyongyang in 2012Credit: AP
Kim,
33, broke with tradition when he was first appeared in public with Ri
in 2012 and since then North Korean media has referred to her has his
wife. Neither Mr Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il-sung, nor father, Kim
Jong-il, were ever photographed with their wives or partners in public.
Ri
and Kim are reported to have met around 2010 when she was a member of
the country’s Unhasu orchestra. The 27-year-old First Lady of the
impoverished state is said to have a penchant for luxury goods and was spotted in 2012 with a Dior handbag worth over £1,000.
The
pair have two children, whose genders are unknown. It is unusual for
North Koreans to have more than two children, but Kim may have felt
pressure to have a third if the first two were girls.
Kim and Ri visiting the Mangyongdae Revolutionary School in Pyongyang earlier this yearCredit: AFP
Ri's latest appearance comes amid a dramatic ratcheting up of tensions in south east Asia over North Korea's nuclear arms tests.
British Defence Secretary, Sir Michael Fallon, said over the weekend that the UK is now under threat from the rouge nation's advancing nuclear capabilities.
The celebration is believed to have taken play at the People's Theatre in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.
Pictures
released by state-run newswire KCNA showed rows of uniformed officials
clapping in delight at their nation's progress in developing a weapon of
mass destruction.
Kim, Ri and his North Korea generals attending an art performance dedicated to nuclear scientists Credit: AFP
Last
week's test of a massive hydrogen bomb, just weeks after the country
fired off two new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) capable of
reaching US shores, prompted international condemnation and a call for
tougher sanctions on the rogue nation.
The
US and its allies feared there would be another ICBM test on Saturday
to mark the North's 69th anniversary of its founding day.
Instead,
a grinning Mr Kim, praised nuclear weapons developers, including chief
scientist Ri Hong Sop and Hong Sung Mu for "taking the lead" in
attaining the "final goal of completing the state nuclear and economic
development."
Kim Jong-un congratulating the scientists behind his nuclear testsCredit: AFP
They
and their engineers were treated to a concert of patriotic songs and a
lavish banquet, during which Mr Kim spurred them to make "redoubled
efforts." Ri, the head of North Korea's Nuclear Weapons Institute, and
Hong, deputy director of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea's munitions
industry department, have both been blacklisted by the United Nations,
US and South Korea.
While
their leaders celebrated, ordinary North Korean citizens filed into the
Kumsusan Palace of the Sun to pay their respects to the embalmed bodies
of founding father Kim Il Sung and his son and successor Kim Jong Il.
KCNA
said service personnel and civilians, including children, laid floral
bouquets at statues of the deceased leaders across the country, while
enjoying art performances and dance parties.
In
an interview published in French newspaper Le Journal de Dimanche on
Sunday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, warned the confrontation
over North Korea's nuclear and missile programme was the world's worst
crisis in years.
The
US will push on Monday for a new UN Security Council resolution that
would impose an oil embargo on the North, an assets freeze on Kim
Jong-un, and an end to payment of North Korean migrant workers.
On
Sunday, the UN revealed that North Korea had illegally exported coal,
iron and other commodities worth at least $270 million to China and
other countries including India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka in the six month
period ending in early August, in violation of existing UN sanctions.
source: yahoonews
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