Musically Speaking

The First Ladies of the two Koreas, Ri Sol-ju and Kim Jung-sook spent their Tuesday in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea, while their husbands sat down for their third summit. First they visited a children’s hospital, and then the Kim Won-gyun Conservatory — the country’s top music college — where they eventually attended an orchestra performance.

Catwalk

Vice Director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Workers’ Party of Korea Kim Yo-jong (pictured above, centre) reappeared on Tuesday, September 18, 2018 at Pyongyang International Airport in Pyongyang, North Korea to personally welcome South Korean President Moon Jae-in on his official visit to the “Capital of Willows” for a much-anticipated meeting with Supreme Leader of North Korea Kim Jong-un, the third inter-Korean summit this year. Photo: Pyongyang Joint Press Corps.

Original Autographed Ticket Memorabilia

Vice Director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Workers’ Party of Korea Kim Yo-jong enjoying a visit at Marina Bay Sands SkyPark in Singapore just on the eve of the historic summit between her brother and U.S. President Donald Trump. Photo: Mark Cheong/The Straits Times

The Guest Book

The agreement signed by Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump. United States committed themselves to cancel any joint military exercises with South Korea in exchange for North Korea’s denuclearisation. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images.

Cloud Dynamics

And finally, U.S. President Donald Trump (seated right) and North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un (seated left) signed what Trump called a “very important” document at their summit in Sentosa Island, Singapore, with the North Korean promising “complete denuclearisation” and the American pledging security guarantees for Pyongyang. Just in the background are two major figures of this non-improvised première, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (standing right) and the Vice Director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Workers’ Party of Korea Kim Yo-jong (standing left) exchanging a document after it was (hopefully) signed. Photo: AFP/Yonhap News Agency.

레드 카펫 (Red carpet)

Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un, arriving at the St. Regis Hotel in Singapore on the afternoon of June 10, 2018. She will attend the first-ever meeting summit between her brother and U.S. President Donald Trump, which is to be held on Tuesday on the resort island of Sentosa. Photo: Yonhap News Agency.

Satellite repeaters

• Sabrina Siddiqui in Washington, Benjamin Haas in Seoul, and Justin McCurry in Tokyo, Donald Trump says North Korea summit could be back on, The Guardian, May 25, 2018

Donald Trump has suggested his summit with Kim Jong-un could still go on as planned, marking yet another dramatic reversal for the U.S. President who just a day earlier canceled the meeting in a letter to the North Korean leader. [Read more].

Asked if North Korea was playing games, Donald Trump responded: “Everybody plays games”. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

Poor but Proud

Apparently, U.S. President Donald Trump has had to cancel the summit with Kim Jong-un after the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Choe Son-hui (pictured above) defiantly called U.S. Vice President Mike Pence a “political puppet”. Everything started last Monday when Pence, in order to sabotage the good running of the negotiations, envisioned for North Korea the “Libya model”, saying it wasn’t a threat but “more of a fact”. Choe Son-hui should not probably have allowed herself to be drawn into such a rude provocation, that Pence wanted to make at all costs, despite Trump’s disavowal to the “Libya model” comments previously provided by his hawkish national security advisor John Bolton. Photo: SBS News.

Dress rehearsals

Through a threatening letter from his staff, U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly cancelled (but possibly delayed) the scheduled June 12 summit in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, blaming his decision on the lack of acquiescence by the Pyongyang government, and warning that the U.S. military is “ready if necessary”. However, beyond his big words, nobody is fully convinced by his reasons. “Expectations were overblown for the North Korea summit, and there are legitimate reasons to question whether Kim Jong-un is serious about giving up its nuclear weapons, but Trump’s letter is an overreaction and ignores the role that top officials played in provoking this crisis”, Mrs. Kelsey Davenport, Director for Non-Proliferation Policy at the Arms Control Association, said.

A sculpture titled Trattenere 6, 8, 12 anni di crescita (Continuerà a crescere tranne che in quel punto) | Holding 6, 8, 12 years of growth (It will continue to grow except at that point), by Giuseppe Penone, part of an exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in West Bretton, United Kingdom. Photo: Danny Lawson/PA.

The Making of a Fashion Model

Time Odds

On Friday, May 4, 2018 at 23,30 local time (15,00 GMT) North Korea’s clocks moved forward 30 minutes to midnight. Until then, they had been on Pyongyang Time, which was half a hour behind South Korea and Japan. The synchronisation may be regarded as “the first practical step” to speed up the pacification of Korea, the official KCNA news agency said. The picture above shows the light shining on the band of the Director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Workers’s Party of Korea Mrs. Kim Yo-jong’s wristwatch. Photo: Seosomun Photo Agency.

Pink and Blue

From left: North Korean First Lady Ri Sol-ju and South Korean First Lady Kim Jung-sook walking together the red carpet at the summit meeting banquet on Friday, April 27, 2018. Photo: kyunghyang.com.

And clicking the glasses, the two presidential couples toasted cheers. Photos: kyunghyang.com.

Trading Places

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (left) and South Korean President Moon Jae-in (right) opened the historic Inter-Korean summit at the military demarcation line in Panmunjom, South Korea on April 27, 2018 with a highly symbolic 20 seconds long handshake. Photo: AFP/Getty Images.

Hand in hand, they took their first steps on the southern side in Panmunjom. Kim Jong-un is the first North Korean leader to set foot in the South since the end of the 1950–1953 Korean war. Photo: EFE.

Kim Jong-un’s younger sister, Kim Yo-jong, too, took part in the meeting held in a blue-carpeted conference room on the second floor of the Peace House, and on her arrival, she was warmly welcomed by Moon Jae-in. Photo: hani.co.kr.

Then the two delegations sit down for the summit meeting. Photo: Newsis.

And finally, Kim Jong-Un’s inscription in the visitors’ book: “A new history begins now. An era of peace, the starting point of history”. Photo: Aflo/Rex/Shutterstock.

And last but not least, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and First Lady Kim Jung-sook (right) toast North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and First Lady Ri Sol-ju (left) toast during a banquet held in Panmunjeom on Friday. Photo: Yonhap.

White Lilac

North Korea’s women’s firsts Ri Sol-ju (Lilac) and Kim Yo-jong (White) attending the Chinese ballet 红色娘子军 (Red Detachment of Women) performance at the East Pyongyang Grand Theatre in Pyongyang, North Korea on April 17, 2018. Photos: Newsis.

A Night at the Ballet

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un elevated his wife Ri Sol-ju to the status of “First Lady”, a move that analysts say will signal a deep change in North Korean society’s power balance.

North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) referred to Ri Sol-ju as the “respected First Lady” in its report on her weekend attendance of a Chinese ballet performance in Pyongyang, the title being a step up from the usual “comrade” that she had previously been afforded.

All the world’s a stage

The above picture, released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on April 2, 2018 and taken on April 1, 2018 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (centre left) speaking to South Korean performers as his wife Ri Sol-ju (far left) and South Korea’s Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Do Jong-hwan (centre right) look on, after a concert by South Korean musicians at the 1,500-seat East Pyongyang Grand Theatre in Pyongyang, North Korea. Photo: AFP/KCNA via KNS.

Kim Jong-un is the first North Korean leader to publicly attend a performance by South Korean artists in Pyongyang and was “particularly interested” in Red Velvet, a K-pop girl band. Photos: AFP/KCNA via KNS.

And finally, here are Kim Jong-un (back, centre) and his wife Ri Sol-ju (second row, sixth from left) posing with South Korean musicians after their performance in the East Pyongyang Grand Theatre in Pyongyang, North Korea. Photo: AFP/KCNA via KNS/Getty Images.

Women in Fashion

China’s censorship authority blocked and banned any mention of Kim Jong-un’s wife, Ri Sol-ju, after several users of Chinese social media commented that North Korea’s First Lady was more elegant and better dressed than Chinese First Lady 彭丽媛 (Péng Lìyuán). Both First Ladies were filmed or pictured in at least three different outfits during Kim’s two-day stay in 北京 (Běijīng), China. Photo collage: iask.ca.

Round Trip Ticket by Train

The above picture, released Wednesday, March 28, 2018 by China’s 新华社 (Xīnhuá News Agency), portrays Chinese President 习近平 (Xí Jìnpíng), second from right, and his wife 彭丽媛 (Péng Lìyuán), right, and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, second from left, and his wife Ri Sol-ju, left, posing for a photo at the Great Hall of the People in 北京 (Běijīng), China. The Chinese government confirmed Wednesday that North Korean leader paid an “unofficial” visit to People’s Republic of China from March 25 to 28 (round trip ticket by train) in his first known visit to a foreign country since taking power in 2011. The most likely purpose of Kim’s visit was to outline all details before his impending April summit meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Photo: 鞠鹏 (Jū Péng)/新华社 (Xīnhuá News Agency) via AP.

What time is it?

• Alessio Marino, Windows: il supporto al fuso orario della Corea del Nord arriverà il 20 Ottobre, tech.everyeye.it, October 12, 2015

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, accompanied by his wife Ri Sol-ju who is seated to his right, attend a performance of the Chongbong band at a theatre in Pyongyang, North Korea. Photo: KNS/AFP/Getty.

Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo

Cambia il fuso orario del Paese: gli orologi saranno portati indietro di 30 minuti. La decisione presa per motivi “patriottici” al fine di ritornare all’orario “originale” antecedente all’invasione giapponese del 1910, quando le due Coree erano unificate. [Read more].

• Giampaolo Visetti, Corea del Nord, l’ultima trovata di Kim Jong-un: dal 15 agosto arriva “l’ora di Pyongyang”, R.it, 7 agosto 2015

After news of his marriage to Ri Sol-ju emerged last July, the North Korean supreme leader Kim-Jong-un made the relationship public by taking her on a tour of the Rungna People’s Pleasure Ground, a new amusement park in the capital, Pyongyang. Photo: KNS/AFP/Getty Images.