North Korea is pushing forward with plans
to erect a fresh set of Kim Il Sung – Kim Jong Il father-son statues in
Yangkang Province, the Daily NK has learned.
“Since fall of last year, Mansudae Art
Studio workers have visited Hyesan in relation to building the statue of the
Grand Marshals [Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il]. Currently, all of the residents in
the city are being fully mobilized every day,” a source
based there told the Daily NK on Monday.
Established in November 1959, Mansudae Art
Studio exclusively creates art work used to idolize Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.
It also creates the portraits of the father and son hanging in all homes,
schools, and state offices, as well as the badge bearing portraits of the two
late leaders. Operating under the direct oversight of the Chosun Workers’ Party
Central Committee, it employs approximately 3,700 people, around one hundred of
whom bear the esteemed title, “Merited Artist” or “People’s Artist.”
According to the source, the statues will
be erected near the battlefield management office in Hyemyeong-dong [a district
of Hyesan]. Continuing with the work despite the peak of the winter season is thought to
be aimed at completing the project by October 10th, which will mark the 70th
anniversary since the Chosun Workers’ Party was
founded.
The project has provincial state-run
enterprises and inminban [people’s unit] on their toes
to ensure participation in some form from all residents. Those who fail to
contribute physically to the cause must go through at least a one-day
self-criticism session and/or make up for their absence with money, gasoline,
cement, timber and other resources.
These stipulations place additional burdens
on residents during an already arduous period of the year. As previously
reported, every year in January, North Koreas are usually mobilized for compost
collection. This means that in the morning, Hyesan residents must submit their
quota of compost at farms, located at least six km out, and then pitch in for
the construction of the statues in the evening, which involves everything from digging the
foundation for the humongous figures to collecting rocks.
As always, those who suffer the most are
without any options to avoid additional drudgery in the frigid cold. “Most of the people working on the statues are those who don’t have enough to get by. Better off households are paying with
gasoline and construction materials instead of participating through manual
labor,” she said, adding that the intensified
crackdown last year on products sold at the marketplace–particularly
contraband South Korean goods–has seen a lot of vendors struggling to get by
on curtailed profits being mobilized.
“People are already battling the cold due
to their compost quotas, so the statue construction is a burden,” the source went on. “Some of the residents
have indirectly complained about the situation, saying, ‘There’s going to be one more place for people to stand guard at
during the holidays,'” she
added, referencing the events requiring residents to line up to pay their
respects in front of the figures.
Others have been more direct in their criticism, saying, “The Generals [Kim Il Sung, Kim
Jong Il] led the songun [military first politics] path by eating rice balls and taking only naps, and we’re building a strong and prosperous nation by eating raw snow in the
bitter cold winter.” On days when
the temperature dips below minus 25 degrees Celsius, people declare, “They’re set on freezing us to death,” according to the source.
Unfortunately, she predicted the physical and
emotional toll to only increase as spring comes and the weather improves, speculating that the state will ratchet up construction efforts.
The father-son statutes follow a series of the same figures springing up across the country this year. The Security University of the DPRK , the State Academy of Sciences,
Sinuiju, Wonsan, and Chongjin were among the areas receiving new Kim statues last year, with no signs of slowing down in 2015.
The intense drive to erect the statutes is not solely meant to idolize the late
leaders, but emphasize the legitimizing “ bloodline” and “loyalty carried through
generations” in order to bolster the stability of Kim Jong Eun’s leadership.
