NK leader uses wooden boat for security reasons

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspects a live shell firing drill targeting South Korea’s western border islands — Yeonpyeong and Baekryong, according to the Rodong Sinmun, the daily newspaper of the North’s Workers’ Party, Thursday. / Yonhap

By Kang Seung-woo

A recent official North Korean photo shows its leader Kim Jong-un arriving aboard a rickety wooden boat to visit a border military unit with soldiers jump into the water to give him a huge round of applause

Pyongyang watchers say the boat was an inevitable option for his security.

“Kim’s use of a small wooden boat is aimed at avoiding our military’s radar surveillance,” said Shin In-kyun, president of the Korea Defense Network.

South Korea and the United States began their Key Resolve exercise, Monday, strengthening radar surveillance on the North.

“A naval ship or a motorboat can expose his location, but a wooden one helps him stay off the radar and avoid detection.”

Shin Beom-chul, director of North Korea military studies at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said that a geographical reason led Kim to choose the wooden boat.

“There is no sizable dock for a naval ship near border units on the West Sea coast,” he said.

A North Korean defector was quoted as saying in the Daily NK, a website monitoring the North, that the shallow water prevents naval ships from approaching the military camps, while motorboats are vulnerable to strong waves in the West Sea.

“The visit is an elaborated scheme to promote his leader in terms of uniting his people,” said Yoo Ho-yeol, a professor at Korea University.

“By visiting the border units, Kim is trying to show off his courage to the military and public to gain their support.”

He added that the North is using the propaganda aimed at describing him as being friendly and soft because it works well in terms of boosting people’s loyalty.