SEOUL (Reuters) – Whatever westerners thought about images of Kim Jong Un trekking through mountain snows astride a white stallion, the subliminal message sent to North Koreans was to instill confidence that they have a man of strength and destiny holding the reins of power. FILE PHOTO: South Korean President Moon Jae-in, first lady Kim Jung-sook, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Sol Ju pose for photographs beside the Heaven Lake of Mt. Paektu, North Korea, September 20, 2018. Pyeongyang Press Corps/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo The Internet was flooded with online jokes and memes after North Korea’s state media released the photographs. But for North Koreans steeped in years of tightly controlled messaging from the government, the imagery would have been familiar and full of cultural and political cues. “The main thing to keep in mind is that while we might think Kim looks goofy, he doesn’t think that,” Jeffrey Lewis, a North Korea expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California, said on Twitter. “And we won’t always like what he does to make us take him seriously.” North Korea’s ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun devoted its front page on Thursday to making…