The North Korean dictator and his wife Ri Sol-ju could be seen enjoying yet another anniversary event this week, following several concerts and parades held earlier this month in honour of the end of Japanese rule in 1945 and the eventual founding of the Korean Workers' Party the following year.

The pictures have been released days after the U.S. floated the idea of improving relations between the countries should Pyongyang abandon their nuclear weapons program.

Kim Jong-Un, 32, and his wife, believed to be in her late 20s, can be seen surrounded by members of the Moranbong Band, an all-female group reportedly the most popular in North Korea.

The rotund 'Dear Leader', appears to be enjoying himself, as he laughs and enjoys a crafty cigarette while sitting next to his young wife, who wore a pale pink satin jacket and matching skirt.  

The pictures were released just days after US President Barack Obama said that Washington was prepared to 'engage' with North Korea - but only if Kim Jong-Un gives up on the nuclear weapons.

Standing alongside South Korean President Park Geun-Hye at the White House on Friday, Obama told a press conference that the dictator's missile program has 'achieved nothing except to deepen North Korea's isolation'.

'President Park and I are reaffirming our nations will never accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state.'

Obama said that while he was ready to 'engage nations with which we have had troubled histories,' he added that 'Kim needs to understand it (North Korea) will not achieve the economic development it seeks so long as it looks at nuclear weapons.'

'At the point where Kim Jong-Un says we are interested in seeing relations and denuclearization, I think it's fair to say we will be right there at the table,' he added. 

North Korea has conducted three nuclear tests and threatened a fourth as part of a weapons and missile program that it has pursued through a barrage of international sanctions.

The secretive country has long claimed it has technology capable of launching nuclear bombs at its distant enemies, but experts are skeptical whether it has acquired the sophisticated expertise needed to produce such weapons.   

Earlier this month, during a celebratory military parade in Pyongyang, Kim declared that his country was ready to stand up to any threat posed by the United States. 

'Our revolutionary force is ready to respond to any kind of war the American imperialists want,' said Kim, whose speech was interrupted by applause several times.

'Through the line of Songun (military-first) politics, our Korean People's Army has become the strongest revolutionary force and our country has become an impenetrable fortress and a global military power,' he said.

After his speech, thousands of soldiers held up coloured cards to spell out 'Songun politics' and 'Defending our homeland.' 

An expert at the Korea Institute for Defense Analysis, a security think tank in Seoul, Jin Moo Kim, said North Korea revealed a new 300-millimeter rocket launcher and drones. It also displayed a KN-08 ballistic missile, with an estimated range of 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles) that the country had previously shown off in 2012. Kim said the presence of Liu might have prevented the North from revealing its most provocative weapons. 

(dailymail.co.uk)