The highly controversial Korean dictator, Kim Jong-Un has gotten tongues wagging around the world after building a replica of the South Korean presidential palace only to destroy it.
Satellite images published by South Korean media show the palace replica in September last year (left) and a destroyed version seen in April (right)
Kim Jong-un has ordered that a replica of the South Korean presidential palace be obliterated in a training exercise, The Sun UK reports.
The grinning dictator was there to witness the wanton destruction of the copy of the palace of his deadly enemies in Seoul.
The building – complete with manicured gardens and tiled roof – was blown to smithereens by Kim’s attack helicopters, which are out-dated models bought from Russia decades ago but considered “invincible” by the dictator.
Army engineers had spent weeks meticulously rebuilding a dummy of the Cheong Wa Dae presidential building on the outskirts of the capital Pyongyang.
Satellite images showed troops tearing the building apart
Aerial shots taken in May and October last year by commercial satellite image provider Airbus showed the structure to be still intact, South Korea’s Chosun website reported.
But in those taken on 22 April it is almost completely destroyed except for the front facade.
The North’s state media recently said special operations troops and helicopters practised attacking the facility in December while leader Kim looked on.
The images also show a V-shaped track and a straight track about 700 m north of the mock-up.
They look like a test site for a laser- or wire-guided anti-tank missile, and construction is complete or nearly complete, according to defence analyst Nick Henson of Stanford University in the US.