Pyongyang – North Korea kicked off a massive parade in the centre of Pyongyang on Tuesday to celebrate a just-concluded ruling party congress that was seen as a formal coronation for supreme leader Kim Jong-Un.

Kim presided over the event from a viewing platform overlooking the giant Kim Il-Sung square in the heart of the capital, which hundreds of thousands of participants turned into a sea of pink by waving floral bouquets over their heads as the young leader arrived.

Nuclear-armed North Korea regularly holds mass military parades to celebrate key dates and show off its latest military hardware, including long-range ballistic missiles that are still under development.

Tuesday’s events were a civilian affair, but the giant floats that moved under the viewing platform carried military themes, showing cardboard mock-ups of missiles and space-launch vehicles.

North Korea followed its last nuclear test in January with a satellite launch that was widely condemned as a disguised ballistic missile test.

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

Reuters

The country’s nominal head of state, Kim Yong-Nam, addressed the parade before it began, praising Kim Jong-Un and congratulating him on his election the day before as chairman of the Workers’ party of Korea.

“The election… showed the absolute trust… of our military and people in the great leader Kim Jong-Un,” Kim said.

He called on the entire country to “single-mindedly and faithfully carry through the ideology and guidance of dear leader Kim Jong-Un”.

The four-day party congress, which ended on Monday, marked the first such gathering of the party’s top decision-making body in more than 35 years.

The event gave the 33-year-old Kim, who came to power following the death of his father Kim Jong-Il in 2011, a podium to secure his status as supreme leader and rightful inheritor of the one-party state founded by his grandfather, Kim Il-Sung.

A look at North Korea’s Kim Jong Un

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

AFP, Reuters

The congress formally endorsed Kim Jong-Un’s legacy “byungjin” doctrine of building an effective nuclear arsenal in tandem with economic development.

Tuesday’s parade saw wave after wave of massed marchers, waving pink paper flowers, balloons of various colours and red party flags, and chanting “Mansei (Long Live)!” in unison.

Some carried giant banners reading “Mansei for comrade Kim Jong-Un, the top leader of our party and people!,” and “Glory to our beloved leader!”

On the main part of the square, static crowds raised different coloured placards to spell out giant slogans like “The leader’s Party,” “Kim Jong-Un’s party” and “Solidarity”, and formed elaborate mosaic images of the party and national flags.

A group of students have reportedly developed sickly symptoms after attending Xinailixiang School in Da’an city in north-east China.

According to news site CCTV News, a Sina Weibo user who goes by the name Zhuiyixun, posted on Monday (May 9) that students began to fall ill because of a chemical found on the newly-built dormitory’s desks.

The students experienced symptoms which include coughs, nausea, and eye congestion. It was also reported that the recently-bought desks contained excessive amounts of formaldehyde.

Those who fell ill were admitted to a local hospital and diagnosed with serious formaldehyde poisoning, People’s Daily reported.

Parents of the affected students have also stepped in to ask for help from government departments but have been unsuccessful.

Formaldehyde is a colourless gas at room temperature and has a strong odour. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, breathing in the gas has adverse health effects and if a person is exposed to high levels of it, he or she might contract cancer.

This is the second case of poisoning in school that has emerged in the past three weeks. In a separate case of supposed poisoning in another Chinese school, parents of at least 522 students at Changzhou Foreign Languages School in Jiangsu province reported that their children had developed medical conditions on April 20.

According to China Post, the students were diagnosed with different illnesses, including cancer, caused by toxic groundwater and soil next to the school.

However, the school refuted the reports and claimed that indoor air quality, soil and groundwater meet national standards.

stephluo@sph.com.sg

Jakarta – Indonesia on Monday freed a Singapore-flagged vessel captured by pirates off the coast of Borneo island, and detained nine suspects involved in the hijacking, a navy spokesman said.

The 20 crew and one passenger who were aboard the captured boat were unharmed during the operation, navy spokesman Edi Sucipto said in a statement.

The vessel had disappeared from radar inside Indonesian waters before reappearing some distance away under a different name, arousing suspicion.

Sucipto said the navy pursued the vessel before securing it and freeing the captive crew.

The pirates had planned to shift 200 kilolitres of oil from the Singapore-flagged ship to another vessel, he added.

Nine Indonesian citizens were detained on suspicion of piracy and were being transferred to Surabaya city, on northeastern Java island, for further questioning.

Piracy is not uncommon along Southeast Asia’s lucrative maritime trade routes.

Indonesia has vowed to protect its vast archipelago from illegal incursions by unregulated fishers and pirates, and has seized hundreds of vessels in a tough crackdown.

“The Indonesian navy will continue to patrol the seas to maintain safety within Indonesian territory,” Sucipto said.

Captured & beaten by pirates

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

The Straits Times, Internet screengrabs

Read also:

Piracy rampant in Indonesia waters

Pirates posing as Indonesian marine cops