Kim Jong-un smiles and laughs while inspecting dead pigs during bizarre visit to North Korean abattoir

The North Korean leader visited the Thaechon Pig Farm of the Korean People's Army in a show of support to his troops

Kim Jong-un was pictured smiling and laughing alongside officials as he toured an abattoir on one of North Korea's many military bases.
Two million of his subjects may be starving - but that seemed to be the last thing on the despot's mind when he visited the Thaechon Pig Farm, which supplies the country's army.
Kim was snapped inspecting pig pens and carcasses following a UN report claiming millions of people living inside the world's most secretive state are struggling to survive on handouts.
The daily ration includes just 650g of maize, rice or meat, according to the UN.
 
The pictures were featured in a two-page spread in Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the North’s ruling Workers’ party.
It was placed before a commentary regarding a US citizen that had been detained by Pyongyang, bringing the number of Americans now being held in the country to three.
As two Japanese navy ships joined a US carrier group for exercises in the western Pacific, North Korea also said it was ready to sink a US aircraft carrier in order to demonstrate its military might.


“Our revolutionary forces are combat-ready to sink a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with a single strike,” the Rodong Sinmun said.
The paper likened the aircraft carrier to a “gross animal” and said a strike on it would be “an actual example to show our military’s force”.

President Donald Trump ordered the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group to sail to waters off the Korean peninsula in response to rising tension over the North’s nuclear and missile tests, and its threats to attack the US and its Asian allies.

Trump has ordered the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group to sail to waters off the Korean peninsula (Photo: REUTERS)

The US has not specified where the carrier strike group is as it approaches the area. Vice-President Mike Pence, who recently visited South Korea on a Pacific tour, said on Saturday the strike group would arrive “within days” but gave no other details.
North Korea has also threatened Australia, where Pence was on Saturday and Sunday, with a nuclear strike if it continues “blindly and zealously toeing the US line”.