Mick Hartley

The Japanese earthquake has not gone unremarked in North Korea. New instructions have been issued by Kim Jong-il for dealing with a natural disaster. The first priority must be…..to safeguard the portraits of the Great Leader and the Dear Leader. Central authorities have recently supplied a plastic container to every household to protect the precious portraits in case of emergency. From the Daily NK:

North Korea forces its people to display loyalty to the Supreme Leader. Through this continuous process of idolization, the Kim family is deified. Naturally, therefore, punishment must be imposed on those who scratch the veneer of the 'Kim dynasty', even unintentionally.

Take the case of No.1 Works (primarily portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il). There are countless cases of people being punished because they damaged No.1 Works, some of which have been confirmed in the testimony of North Korean defectors.

One such example is that of Hyun Chul Hwa, who once resided in North Hamkyung Province (before coming to South Korea in 2010). Hyun had to leave her daughter, who was 9 years old at the time, and go to the mountains to gather medical herbs for roughly ten days in 2004.

Such foreign-currency earning activities are primarily overseen by the No. 39 Department of the Central Committee of the Party, which manages Kim Jong Il's ruling funds. When the Chosun Workers' Party calls for it, everyone over the age of 17 has to participate as a duty.

Anyway, after working hard for ten days, Hyun returned home. However, her daughter, who should have welcomed the return of her mother happily, had a ghastly pale face.

The reason was that there had been an unusually large amount of rain and strong winds during that period, and this had thrown off some of the family's wooden roof tiles. In the end, water had gathered in the vinyl wall paper which had been applied to the ceiling, and from there had soaked into the family's portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, damaging them heavily.

So the first words of Hyun's daughter, who had not met her mother for approximately ten days, were, "Mother, what are we going to do? Water has soaked into the portraits and there are loads of smudges. What if we end up like our neighbors?"

The daughter was referring to a neighborhood family in which the father was a National Security Agency agent. He had used the Rodong Shinmun for smoking, but had used a piece with a small image of Kim Il Sung on it. Finally, after a neighbor reported him, the man had to resign from his position.

Trying to find a way to solve the problem, a worried Hyun finally went to the local area administrative office, but a bad outcome could not be avoided.

Hyun was promptly summoned by the National Security Agency for 3 days of ideological investigation, and then ordered to write a self-criticism over the course of a week.

Of course, so as to avoid punishment, Hyun stated in the self-criticism that the incident was entirely her fault, and that it had been caused by a lack of loyalty and revolutionary spirit. Naturally, she added that she would correct the fault in herself with due haste.

"Fortunately, the incident ended there," Hyun said in her testimony. "However, I was troubled that I had been forced to 'disguise' a damaged roof caused by bad weather as a lack of loyalty."

In keeping with this policy of prioritizing portraits over both people and common sense, Kim Jong Il recently ordered that the No.1 Works be the first priority in the event of any natural disaster.

Indeed, following news of the earthquake in Japan, the 'loyalty department' under the Party's propaganda section, which manages historical landmarks and sites, was instructed to conduct even more thorough maintenance of No.1 Works.

Under the order, the central authorities have supplied a plastic container to protect portraits in case of emergency. Additionally, the North Korean authorities have ordered each household to look after portraits more carefully, an order that has been followed up with inspections.

Also, as Kim Jong Eun has been appearing as second-in-command more and more, the idolization of the Kim family has become more conspicuous once more, emphasizing the blood of Mt. Baekdu and successor to the Military-first leadership through the domestic media.

Thus, inside sources say, the people now have cause to complain that in addition to Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, they also have to serve "that little kid".

Little kid?