Kim Jong Eun has allegedly stepped back from extracting the costs of idolizing Kim Jong Il from the people, according to an inside source.

“On the 10th an order from comrade Kim Jong Eun was handed down saying that the burden of necessary materials and money for the construction of towers to eternal life and the sun statue must not be passed on to the people,” the source from northerly Yangkang Province explained to Daily NK on the 13th. “So the work of returning money and items already obtained is now carrying on apace.”

Since the Central Committee Politburo released news of plans for the widespread construction of monuments last month, people’s units had reportedly been gathering in cement, gravel, sand and other materials and material costs from the people under their charge, for example demanding that students submit 600g of copper each for the construction of statues.

However, this reportedly attracted criticism. Partly this is because in order to attend to his role as supreme commander, Kim Jong Eun has been on many military visits and met many soldiers, but has failed to appear as a people’s leader with an eye on the problems people are facing.

The source said, “Local secretaries and other officials are returning to the households in the order they appear in the official ledger of moneys obtained, giving it all back and getting signatures proving that it has been returned.”

Ordinary people apparently welcome the change of heart, but also find the inconsistency of the official position ridiculous.

“Is this some new form of official ‘consideration for the people’ ahead of the big day (Kim Jong Il’s birthday)?” the source said. “Even though all it means is I am not being cheated out of my money, it is the greatest form of consideration since the founding of the Republic.”

Others have reportedly been heard to note, “So Comrade Kim Jong Eun ordered them not to collect the money; but who the hell asked them to collect the money in the first place? This country is getting even more pathetic.”