Pictures: Kim Jong-un rides white horse up sacred mountain

In the photos released by state news agency KCNA, Kim is seen riding alone on a large white horse through snowy fields and woods on Mt Paektu, the spiritual homeland of the Kim dynasty.

"Kim Jong-un's march on horseback in Mt Paektu is a great event of weighty importance in the history of the Korean revolution," KCNA said.

"Having witnessed the great moments of Kim's thinking atop Mt Paektu, all the officials accompanying him were convinced with overflowing emotion and joy that there will be a great operation to strike the world with wonder again and make a step forward in the Korean revolution," KCNA said.

It was unclear what the operation might involve, but Kim Jong-un has often made trips to the sacred mountain at times of major policy endeavours. Several experts said much of the rhetoric in the KCNA report revolves around the economy, and they suspect North Korea may soon conduct a space launch. That would enable the North to show of its economic and technological power in a less provocative way than by testing an ICBM.

The report in Korean has characterised Kim's climb up to Mt Paektu on horseback as a new 'myth', and that, together with the images of him on a white horse, appear to have been designed to create maximum propaganda effect, which I believe media will play up in the days to come" says Rachel Minyoung Lee, an analyst with NK News, a website that monitors North Korea.