◆'Storm troops' hidden from President Moon

On September 20, President Moon Jae-in and his entourage were welcomed by Kim Jong-un in Samjiyeon, where together they climbed Mt. Baekdu. On the way to the mountain, the 'storm troops' would have remained out of site. A local reporting partner said, "Samjiyeon's ‘storm troops’ were sent away a few days previous so that they wouldn’t be seen by Moon Jae-in and the other South Korean visitors.”

※ The Rodong Sinmun, on November 28, 2016, reported that Kim Jong-un conducted an inspection of Samjiyeon and ordered for "Samjiyeon, the birthplace of General Kim Jong-il, to be memorialized as a sacred site of revolution."

※ On April 22, 2015, the Party designated the Mubong District of Samjiyeon County as an "International Special Tourism Zone."

Map of the Samjiyeon area
A young female member of a storm troop unit working on the construction of a Pyongyang apartment block. Taken by Gu Gwang-ho in August 2011 (ASIAPRESS)

Editor’s notes on North Korean reporters
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