North Korea's Kim Calls For Self-Reliance After Scaling Sacred Mountain - Reports

North Korea's Kim Calls for Self-Reliance After Scaling Sacred Mountain - Reports

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rode up a sacred mountain on horseback on Wednesday to send a message to the country that it can achieve prosperity on its own, state media reported

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th October, 2019) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rode up a sacred mountain on horseback on Wednesday to send a message to the country that it can achieve prosperity on its own, state media reported.

The KCNA news agency published photos of Kim riding a white horse in first snow to Mount Paektu, the highest peak on the Korean Peninsula and the alleged birthplace of his late father, Kim Jong Il.

Chairman Kim also visited a township on the slope of the mountain to inspect and give "field guidance" to workers building "public catering outlets."

He admitted that the situation in the country was still difficult because of the "ceaseless sanctions and pressure by the hostile forces" and predicted more hardships and trials.

"Whenever the enemies try to strangle us with the chain of pressure, we should pave the way with our own efforts to continue to live well-off in the great spirit of self-reliance," Kim was quoted as saying.

He further urged the nation to "choose the prosperity based on our own efforts only as the immutable road of development and keep holding higher the banner of self-reliance as we do now."

South Korean media say ascent to the sacred mount usually precedes big political decisions.

North Korea has been in talks with the United States in a bid to get sanctions relief in return for promising to scrap its nuclear weapons program. It has launched several missiles in the past months to turn up the pressure on the US.