Philatelists, rejoice: North Korea has just released a new stamp design commemorating its nuclear missile test.
Get your Hwasong-14 ICBM first flight-test commemorative stamps! Newly released by #NorthKorea. (via KCNA) pic.twitter.com/xvyrXYWDf0
— Ankit Panda (@nktpnd) August 8, 2017
The stamps feature facts about the test launch of North Korea’s new intercontinental ballistic missile, known as Hwasong-14 — which experts believe has the capability to hit the US homeland — including diagrams of its trajectory and reach and a photo of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
One of the stamps features an image of Kim and a man in a military uniform pumping their fists above a few computer screens.
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North Korea tested the Hwasong-14 on July 4 and again on July 28, defying a United Nations ban and demonstrating a theoretical ability to strike a target as far away as the US Eastern Seaboard, despite President Trump’s vows to put an end to the country’s nuclear program.
North Korea has just launched another missile. Does this guy have anything better to do with his life? Hard to believe that South Korea.....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 4, 2017
The UN recently slapped sanctions on North Korea in an effort to punish the regime for developing the missiles. The sanctions prohibit export of North Korean coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore, and seafood and set new limits on North Korea’s Foreign Trade Bank — all of which could significantly impact the North Korean economy.
The stamp design is the latest — and admittedly the most whimsical — development in the ongoing North Korean nuclear crisis, but it’s not the first time the country has minted controversial designs. CNN reports that Pyongyang uses the stamp industry as a steady source of income and has released designs marking the anniversary of the Korean War and stamps with Princess Diana’s face on them.