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SEOUL (Reuters) – Satellite images showing the recent movements of luxury boats often used by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his entourage near Wonsan provide further evidence that he has been to the coastal complex, according to experts monitoring the solitary regimen.
Speculation about Kim’s health and location erupted after his unprecedented absence from the April 15 celebrations to mark the birthday of his late grandfather and North Korean founder Kim Il Sung.
On Tuesday, North Korea’s monitoring website NK PRO reported that commercial satellite imagery showed that the vessels Kim frequently used had made movements in patterns suggesting that he or his entourage might be in the Wonsan area. .
That followed a report last week from a US-based North Korea monitoring project. USA, 38 North, which reported that satellite imagery showed that what was believed to be Kim’s personal train was parked at a station reserved for use at the villa in Wonsan.
Officials in South Korea and the United States say Kim may be staying there, possibly to avoid exposure to the new coronavirus, and have expressed skepticism over media reports that she had some form of serious illness.
They caution, however, that Kim’s health and location are closely guarded secrets and that reliable information is difficult to obtain in North Korea.
The last time official media in North Korea reported on Kim’s whereabouts was when he chaired a meeting on April 11, but there have been almost daily reports of him sending letters and diplomatic messages.
Kim’s coastal resort in Wonsan, on the country’s east coast, is dotted with guest villas and features private beach services, basketball court, and private train station, according to experts and satellite imagery. Last year an airstrip was razed to build a riding arena, while a nearby boathouse houses Kim’s Princess 95 luxury yacht, valued at around $ 7 million in 2013.
“It’s one of his favorite houses,” said Michael Madden, a North Korean leadership expert at the US-based Stimson Center, who has compared Kim’s affinity for Wonsan with the favorite resort of the United States president, Donald Trump, Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
Madden said Kim is believed to have around 13 major compounds across the country, though it appears he only regularly uses half of them.
“They are all configured to serve as the leader’s headquarters, so they are equipped for him to run the country,” he said.
Wonsan is one of the largest and best-designated compounds, but it also has a useful location that allows Kim to easily travel to other areas along the coast, or quickly return to Pyongyang by private train or along a highway Special designated to be used only by the Kim family or senior officials, Madden said.
FAVORITE POINT
Wonsan also has symbolic power for the Kim dynasty – it was there that Kim Il Sung, who helped found North Korea at the end of Japanese colonial rule in 1945, first landed with Soviet troops to take the country.
Some experts believe Wonsan is Kim Jong Un’s birthplace, in part because he spent his early years at the family palace there, although official history has never confirmed where he was born.
Japanese chef Kenji Fujimoto, who worked for the Kim and visited Wonsan, recounted in his memoirs how a young Kim Jong Un described skating, playing basketball, riding jet skis, and playing in the resort’s pool.
Later photos showed Kim sipping drinks there with American basketball player Dennis Rodman when the star visited North Korea in 2013.
The Wonsan area has also become emblematic of Kim’s survival strategy based on a combination of economic development, tourism and nuclear weapons. He is rebuilding the city of 360,000 people and wants to make it a billion dollar tourist spot.
In recent months, the project has been repeatedly delayed, weakened in part by international sanctions imposed on northern nuclear and missile programs, which have restricted its ability to seek foreign investment.
Wonsan has also been the scene of some of Kim’s renewed military exercises and missile tests, which he resumed amid mounting frustration at the lack of progress in denuclearization talks with the United States and South Korea.
(Report by Josh Smith. Additional report by Sangmi Cha. Lincoln Feast edition.)
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