KIM WARNS N KOREA WOULD ‘PRE-EMPTIVELY’ USE NUCLEAR WEAPONS
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned yet again that the North could pre- emptively use its nuclear weapons if threatened, as he praised his top military officials over the staging of a massive military parade in the capital, Pyongyang, this week.
Kim expressed “firm will” to continue developing his nucleararmed military so that it could “pre-emptively and thoroughly contain and frustrate all dangerous attempts and threatening moves, including ever-escalating nuclear threats from hostile forces, if necessary,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Saturday.
KCNA said Kim called his military officials to praise their work on Monday’s parade, where the North showcased the biggest weapons in its military’s nuclear programme, including intercontinental ballistic missiles that could potentially reach the US homeland and a variety of solid-fuel missiles.
The parade marking the 90th anniversary of North Korea’s army came as Kim revives nuclear brinkmanship aimed at forcing the US to accept the idea of his country as a nuclear power and remove sanctions.
SEATTLE: The world’s first permanent NFT art museum has opened in Seattle, aiming to “pull back the curtain” on blockchain-based digital art.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are a type of digital asset that has exploded in popularity recently, with NFT artworks selling for millions of dollars. NFTs exist on a blockchain, a record of transactions kept on networked computers.
The museum opened its doors on January 14, and has been providing an outlet for artists, creators, and collectors to display their NFTs in a physical setting, while aiming to educate the public about this fairly new market for digital art.
“We really realised the impact of being able to look at this type of art in a way where you actually slow down, you see all the details,” said Jennifer Wong, a co-founder and curator at Seattle NFT Museum.
Local digital artist Maksim Surguy attended the opening of the museum’s ‘Climate Conversation’ exhibition on April 16, which features his designs that are sold as NFTs online, but can also be printed in physical form.
“Previously, if you make a digital artwork or physical artwork, there were a lot of limitations about who can see the artwork or how they can own it,” said Surguy, who works in Seattle’s tech industry and ventured into crypto-based art a year and a half ago.
According to a March report from Ireland-based Research and Markets firm, the global NFT market is expected to grow to over $21 billion in 2022.
“An NFT is really just a contract that signifies the ownership of an asset of some kind,” said Peter Hamilton, who co-founded the museum. “These tokens... are basically a contract that says this serial number belongs to this piece of art, and if you own this token, you are the rightful owner.”