Some portraits of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il have been removed from buildings in the country, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported Tuesday, citing an unidentified diplomat. However, another foreign diplomat in the North Korean capital Pyongyang told The Associated Press that Kim's pictures remain in public places. An official at South Korea's Unification Ministry, which handles relations with North Korea, said "we are not yet able to confirm the reports and thus we don't have any comments to make."
| Prob'ly sending 'em out for cleaning... |
Kim is the focus of an all-encompassing cult of personality in North Korea and images of him are near-ubiquitous in and on the country's buildings. It was unclear what might motivate their removal, but the South Korean official said his country's analysts did not have indications that Kim was facing significant internal political challenges. In a report from Beijing, ITAR-Tass cited the North Korea-based diplomat as saying that guests at recent Foreign Ministry receptions saw only portraits of Kim's late father, Kim Il Sung, who founded the secretive Communist state. "A light rectangular spot and a nail in the wall were the only things that remained in the place where Kim Jong Il's portrait had hung," the agency cited the diplomat as saying. But the other diplomat told AP that he had seen nothing "untoward" and that he saw many Kim portraits during a visit to a hospital on Tuesday. | This reminds me of the Cold War years where agents studied photos of Soviet leaders reviewing the May Day parade, checking who was standing next to who, wondering "What does it mean?". |
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