There have been ongoing people’s unit, enterprise and military base lectures featuring the alleged upcoming launch of ‘Gwangmyungsung 3’ since March 17th, sources inside North Korea have informed Daily NK.
According to a Pyongyang source who spoke with Daily NK earlier today, the authorities are calling the launch “the first cannon shot welcoming the centennial birthday of the great Suryeong, comrade Kim Il Sung, and opening the door to the strong state.”
“There are just a few countries which have been able to complete a satellite with their own technology, but General Kim Jong Il layed the groundwork and this noble work has been completed by comrade Supreme Commander Kim Jong Eun,” lecturers have reportedly been pointing out.
The source added, “Soon they’ll be hanging new slogans all over the country about the General and Commander-in-Chief.”
They will say things like ‘Long live our great leader General Kim Jong Il who made it possible for us to become a nuclear state’ and ‘Great glory to comrade Kim Jong Eun for launching a satellite and firing the cannons of our powerful state,’ the source mused.
However, all the talk of satellites is attracting little attention from ordinary people, who see it as far from their daily realm.
A Yangkang Province source told Daily NK on the 17th, “Frankly speaking, we don’t have the first idea about artificial satellites, and don’t know what launching a satellite even really means. Quite a few people think it is a measure to allow satellite relays of our athletes in international competition.”
“Most people really couldn’t care less, they just act like ‘if they are going to launch a satellite, they’d better get on and do it, and if they want to fire cannons, they’d better do that’.”
The source went on, “Almost nobody thinks it is being done to show off our military power, they just think, ‘Wow, so our technological level is really that high, huh!’”
A Shinuiju source reported a similar sentiment, saying that people in the market see no change on the horizon given that they get little electricity and cannot even watch TV half the time. In addition, the authorities previously claimed to have launched two satellites, one in 1998 and another in 2009, and this only increases the apathy, given that “they have succeeded twice yet nothing came to the ordinary people, so why expect anything now.”
The only place where an alternate reaction can be found is in the military. There indifference is apparently being trumped by tension aroused by special lectures, according to the North Hamkyung Province source.
“Since the start of March they’ve been having political lectures with parts about the greatness of comrade Supreme Commander Kim Jong Eun and other parts impelling preparation for war,” the source explained. “Normally these lectures are sent out from divisional command HQ, but this month people from the Ministry of People’s Armed Forces have been visiting bases to give lectures personally.”
Lecturers have reportedly been asserting that Kim Jong Eun is determined to unify the country this year and has both the steely resolve and extraordinary plans needed to make it happen, raising internal tensions.
Meanwhile, the North Hamkyung source also revealed news that in lectures from the period before the announcement about the launch of ‘Gwangmyungsung 3’, the regime was emphasizing the need to solve food problems as a matter of priority.
“The authorities were emphasizing that foreign currency earning units at all levels needed to focus on importing food right up until the April celebrations,” the source explained. “Hundreds of tons of food came in across Namyang Railway Bridge in Onsung County this past 5th.”
