The Marmot’s Hole

The media — both Western and Korean — as well as the blogosphere (see this, this and especially this) has been all over this whole Kim Jong-il portrait/”Dear Leader” crap. Personally, I give stories coming out of North Korea very low credibility, especially if they’re being relayed by the Senkai Shimbun. That being said, now we’ve got a story coming from the Choson Shinbo — the mouth piece of the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan — confirming that portraits of Kim the Younger have indeed been taken down from international event venues, including the People’s Palace of Culture (courtesy the decidedly un-Choson Shinbo-like Chosun Ilbo). The original Korean-language piece is here, via anonymouse now that the MIC monkeys have put a block on pro-North Korean websites in South Korea. Anyway, according to the Chosun Ilbo rendition:

Citing a People’s Palace of Culture official, the paper said in a Pyongyang dispatch that the removal was to show Kim?????s unchanged respect for his late father Kim Il-sung, although Kim himself is the nation’s highest leader.

The paper also said homes and other public places still have the portraits of Kim Jong-il hung on the wall alongside those of Kim Il-sung.

The Korean version, however, contained a rather touching tale I’ll share with you, the dear reader. In was the mid-1970s, and Kim Jong-il had just been named The Successor. In accordance with a petition from the people ™, who wished to hang portraits of the Coiffured One in their homes and offices, the Central Committee of the Korean Workers Party handed down the historic measure of having Kim’s portrait hung along with his father’s. Junior refused to give his consent to he measure, however. He instructed the Central Committee members to take his mug shot down, but the foreign minister at the time refused to take portraits from the international venues, explaining that the decision to hang the portraits was that of the people ™, and he couldn’t simply take them down without the consent of the people ™, now could he. Jong-il was adamant, however, insisting that as a warrior for the Great Leader, it was simply inappropriate for the portraits of the Great Leader and his warrior to hang side by side, and the foreign minister was eventually disciplined by the party.

Of course, prior to telling this little anecdote, the People’s Cultural Palace official pointed out, “Nobody exalts the Great Leader like our General (Kim Jong-il).”

OK, so the North Korean explanation is that this is all an attempt the show the dead but still serving North Korean head of state his proper respect, especially in front of the evil foreigners.

Well, I’m sure people have other theories. For me, I’ll sit back and watch for more before I try to guess what the hell the boys and girls in Pyongyang are thinking… if they’re thinking anything at all.