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Seoul’s Unification Ministry said South Korea is willing to provide medical assistance and other help to North Korea based on humanitarian considerations. Relations between the Koreas have deteriorated since 2019 amid a stalemate in nuclear negotiations and the North’s increasingly provocative weapons tests. North Korea’s state TV showed Kim and other senior officials wearing masks as they entered a meeting room, although Kim removed his mask to speak into a set of microphones. Still photos distributed by KNCA showed Kim unmasked and sitting at the head of a table where all other officials remained masked. For Pyongyang to publicly admit omicron cases, the public health situation must be serious,” Easley said. A three-week absence in 2020 sparked rumours of heart surgery, with some reports suggesting he had died. A more plausible theory – that he had simply been isolating as a precaution during the pandemic – emerged after Kim reappeared, apparently in good health.
North Korea’s 24 million people have also suffered under Kim, whose human rights abuses include the torture, humiliation and sexual assault of criminal suspects and the use of a network of gulags for the politically “impure”. And yet, predictions that his regime is in danger of collapse are as hopelessly wide of the mark now as they were a decade ago. A ruthless leader-in-waiting The measures described in state media and Kim’s declaration that economic goals should still be met could indicate that North Korea is focusing more on restricting travel and supplies between regions, analyst Cheong Seong-Chang at South Korea’s Sejong Institute said.
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The younger Kim’s sudden ascent to lead an unpredictable, nuclear-armed nation on 17 December 2011 offered little indication of how – and for how long – he would rule the secretive state. Some observers predicted an early political demise for a young man who had yet to earn the loyalty of the inner circle of the ruling Korean Workers’ party and the generals of the country’s million-strong army. North Korea’s previous coronavirus-free claim had been disputed by many foreign experts. But South Korean officials have said North Korea had likely avoided a huge outbreak, in part because it instituted strict virus controls almost from the start of the pandemic. Kim has maintained his grip on power through a combination of the regime apparatus, keeping the elites happy who help sustain a Kim family leadership system, and employing brutal practices to enforce loyalty and eliminate threats.” The WHO recommends that you clean hands with alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water before putting on a mask. Despite being surrounded by Russia, China and South Korea – all of which have experienced major Covid surges in recent months – North Korea has remained one of the only countries in the world not to pursue a vaccine programme and has rejected multiple offers of aid from both the United Nations and China.
Kim Jong-un walks beside the hearse containing his father, Kim Jong-il, in 2011. The transition of power led many to fear instability in the nuclear-armed country. Photograph: 朝鮮通信社/AP
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Following a farewell ceremony that included a red carpet and honor guards, Kim was seen boarding his personal train, which left Artyom railway station while Russian officials waved, in a video published by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti. That applies as much to Kim’s health as it does to his nuclear weapons. Official photos offered watertight proof that he piled on the pounds in his first few years as leader and that his weight had caused him occasional discomfort. Prolonged absences from public life triggered speculation he was suffering a serious illness. Hyperflesh masks aren’t just a 3D printing project, they’re a viral sensation. Combining additive manufacturing with boundless creativity, Hyperflesh mix pop culture with art to create insanely realistic 3D printed masks. Kim Jong-un with his uncle Jang Song-thaek, a year before he was executed. Photograph: KYODO/REUTERS
As Kim left, the governor of the far eastern Russian region of Primorye gave him a bulletproof vest and a set of drones, Russian state news agency TASS reported. Rail freight traffic between the North Korean town of Sinujiu and China's Dandong had tentatively reopened in January after Kim's regime forced the country into two years of strict isolation to stop the pandemic from crippling its already weak healthcare system. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile. In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Beijing is offering North Korea help in dealing with the outbreak. North Korea has reportedly rejected previous Chinese offers of domestically developed vaccines.A serious situation has been created due to the introduction of a stealth mutant virus into our precincts," the agency said, reporting that an emergency meeting of the ruling Korean Workers’ Party politburo had been called to discuss prevention measures. His greatest test, though, could be largely home-grown, says the Hudson Institute’s Cronin. “The biggest unknown for Kim remains the true impact of Covid, which has stifled North Korean progress and may yet undermine the regime in ways not yet visible to the outside world,” he says. My original motivation (with Hyperflesh) was to create a mask so real as to confuse and terrify. Those looking at the wearer would have a moment of uncomfortable disorientation because it looks real – but there’s something wrong. Uncanny valley stuff. I started off my career with baby designs about 17 years ago with the idea (behind Hyperflesh) being the terrifying juxtaposition of a baby’s head on an adult body. Firstly, it does the work for me. Yes, there’s post-processing work but not as much as traditional methods.
Kim Jong-nam and Jang Song-thaek were not the regime’s only high-profile victims. In 2017, the world reacted in horror after the death of Otto Warmbier, an American student who had been detained in North Korea, reportedly after attempting to steal a poster as a memento of his visit. Although details of his death remain murky, we do know that the 22-year-old university student was medically evacuated from North Korea on 13 June that year and flown to the US, where he died on 19 June. Kim Sin-gon, a professor at Seoul’s Korea University College of Medicine, said North Korea is likely signaling its willingness to receive outside vaccines, but wants many more doses than offered by COVAX to inoculate its entire population multiple times. He said North Korea would also want COVID-19 medicines and medical equipment shipments that are banned by U.N. sanctions.He has since stepped out of the shadow of his predecessors, using a constitutional revision in 2019 to expunge all mention of his father’s songun “military-first” policy. South Korean media reported this month that portraits of former leaders have been removed from meeting rooms, while officials now use the term “Kim Jong-un-ism” to underline the break with the ideologies of his predecessors. I would like to expand Hyperflesh significantly, as currently it’s just me. I would like to hire out some of the work. Also, I would like to develop a less expensive version of my masks that can be mass produced but with near the same level of realism. A face we have perhaps seen enough of. 3DS: What are you most excited for in the future of 3D printing and why?
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