?The Ryugyong Hotel [the arrow-shaped building in the centre of the picture] is the most hideous building in Pyongyang,? says Kang. ?The rumour is that the structure of the hotel is flawed and can never be opened unless the whole structure is rebuilt,? he addsPhotograph: Chris Petersen-Clausen/NK News

?We have to spray gasoline on North Korea, and let the North Korean people set fire to it.?Thae, 54, has said publicly that dissatisfaction with Kim prompted him to flee his post. Thae has said more North Korean diplomats are waiting in Europe to defect to South Korea. North and South Korea are technically still at war as their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. North Korea?s elite is outwardly expressing its discontent towards Kim Jong-un and his government as more outside information trickles into the isolated nation, the country?s former deputy ambassador to London has said. Thae Yong-ho defected to South Korea in August last year and since December has been speaking to media and appearing on television to discuss his defection and his life as a North Korean envoy.

(North Korean diplomats are required to leave a child in the North, a measure intended to prevent their defection. Their English friends taunted them with questions, like why Mr. Kim had smoked a cigarette inside a nursery. Schooled for several years in Switzerland, Mr. Kim was expected to help modernize his impoverished country. While in London, his sons began asking questions, like why the North Korean government executed people in public without a proper trial, Mr. Thae said. Another sign of Mr. Kim?s weakening control, Mr. Thae said, is evident at the unofficial markets in North Korea where women trade goods, mostly smuggled from China.

But this resort is beyond the imagining of most of the North Korea`s dirt-poor people. The International Olympic Committee received no bid from North Korea to host the Winter Games and even if they had, it would have been beyond the North`s capabilities. Only four slopes were open when NBC News visited, but that had more to do with the blizzard than anything else. A full ski outfit with gear costs several months worth of wages for even the most affluent local customer. Chairlifts take parties of excited schoolchildren from chalets and the resort`s main hotel ? which offers first, second or third-class rooms.

Trump?s defense secretary plans to visit Japan and South Korea next week and concerns about North Korea are expected to top his agenda. A 38 North Korea report last week said operations at the reactor had been suspended since late 2015. Washington?s 38 North project, which monitors North Korea, said previous analysis from 18 January showed signs that North Korea was preparing to restart the reactor at Yongbyon, having unloaded spent fuel rods for reprocessing to produce additional plutonium for its nuclear weapons stockpile. North Korea has maintained its nuclear and missile programs in violation of repeated rounds of international sanctions. New commercial satellite imagery suggests North Korea has resumed operation of a reactor at its main nuclear site that is used to produce plutonium for its nuclear weapons program, a US thinktank said on Friday.

The New South Wales health minister, Jillian Skinner, has announced her retirement from politics. The week after Mike Baird?s surprise resignation as premier Skinner said she was leaving the parliament as well, forcing a byelection in the North Shore electorate. She also faced pressure over mistakes in the cremation of babies? bodies at Royal North Shore hospital. She was minister for health for almost six years after spending 14 years in total in the shadow role. Gladys Berejiklian: six pressing matters facing the new NSW premier Read more?Most importantly, I have always believed in putting the patient first in everything we do,? she said.

The defection of Thae , North Korea`s erstwhile deputy ambassador to the U.K., with his wife and children last August was one of the most high-profile cases in recent years. "The traditional structures of the North Korean system are crumbling," Thae Yong Ho said at a press conference in Seoul, according to the New York Times . "Thae called on foreign powers to continue sanctions against North Korea, and argued that the dissemination of outside information would be the best way to spark a rebellion within the North. He also said the elites were becoming disillusioned with Kim Jong Un, and predicted that " more defections of my colleagues will take place, since North Korea is already on a slippery slope. His words come on the heels of a video , released by the country`s state-run television station, depicting the North Korean leader watching a missile test launch.