North Korea does this shit all the time. It is partially to show the country that DPRK is so awesome! It is partially to distract the country from news they don't necessarily want spread around; they announced this right after they announced they executed all of the family of Kim Jong Un's uncle. Maybe the news of the further executions wasn't received quite the way they expected, who knows. Also, the US is doing its annual military training with South Korea right now, and the DPRK likes to announce it's wacky "accomplishments" during this time so they can show how much more powerful they are than the US. That kind of information control is only going to work so long, because popular culture is being smuggled into the country and people are realizing what a big ****ing liar Kim Jong Un is. Part of the popular culture includes smuggled DVDs, and they realize by watching them that other people have food, cars, countries have big buildings and money while they starve to death for yet another year. Eventually, hopefully, Kim Jong Un will fall while the people stand. I doubt the country will ever become like South Korea, but maybe it will become more like China. And it's sad when you're hoping for a country to be more like China.