A photo appearing to show the former leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-il, inspecting an atom bomb has featured in TV footage.
The half-hour bulletin was filmed at an arms and munitions industry conference in Pyongyang yesterday.
Reportedly the photograph has ‘never before seen in the West’, and is visible for a few seconds as the scene is set ahead of the conference, attended by Kim Jong-un, the son of the late Kim Jong-il.
The picture hangs among others showing North Korea’s ‘achievements’ in the production of arms and appears to show Kim Jong-il, who died six years ago this week, inspecting a large globe.
Experts are said to be holding off on any confirmation of it being atomic weapon because of how briefly the photo is seen on screen – but it holds similarities to recent photographs of Kim Jong-un inspecting the country’s first ‘hydrogen bomb’, reports the BBC.
Reports said there are ‘no publicly available’ images of the late leader looking at a nuclear weapon.
It was first spotted by China-based Twitter user @xutianran on December 12, who asked:
Is this an A-bomb or sth [something]?
US arms control expert Jeffrey Lewis tweeted: ‘This is the photo we’re all ogling.’
And Alistair Coleman, a North Korea, cybersecurity, and terrorism journalist posted a zoomed-in image and wrote:
I’ve got this slightly larger version. Very interesting, but not conclusive because CSI zoom-in-and-enhance technology hasn’t been invented yet.
If the picture of Kim-Jong-il is genuine, it would possibly be dated either 2006 or 2009, when North Korea carried out nuclear tests, according to reports.
But then there is the possibility the globe is a ‘mock-up’ because there are ‘no records of a scientist being able to miniaturise a nuclear device at that time’.
This isn’t the first time North Korea has ‘accidentally’ (aka accidentally-on-purpose) given away information in the background of the country’s news reports.
It was only in August this year North Korea revealed plans for ‘previously unknown ballistic missile types’ when they were seen on wall charts during coverage of a visit to a defence facility by Kim Jong-un.
This year in particular leader Kim Jong-un has been in the news, following heated words against US President Donald Trump, along with numerous missile tests.
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In August footage emerged on social media showing warning alarms sounding. It was reported they were triggered across parts of Japan after North Korea fired a missile over the country.
A month later, according to reports, TV and radio stations were interrupted to broadcast the ‘J-Alert’ and trains were brought to a stop as warnings went out over loudspeakers in the northern island, Hokkaido.
A ballistic missile, which was revealed to have been fired at 5.58am local time, landed in the sea 735 miles east of Cape Erimo.
Then, North Korea’s foreign minister, Ri Yong Ho, said Pyongyang might consider conducting ‘the most powerful detonation’ of a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific ocean, reported the Guardian, after President Trump warned they would ‘totally destroy North Korea’ if it threatened the US.
Utter madness.
