The North Korean authorities have unveiled plans to construct twin statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il in the border city of Hyesan, Yangkang Province. Quotas under the plan have been passed on to the region’s foreign currency-earning units, which are required to finance it.
A source from the city told Daily NK on the 28th, “The Central Party order to set up statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il in Hyesan was conveyed last month. The provincial Party has obtained the land and put in place a plan for obtaining the raw materials, so now foreign currency-earners have been given their quotas. The goal is to unveil the statues in October.”
Mansudae Art Studio, which designs monolithic art for the idolization of the Kim family at home as well as other statues and buildings abroad, is heading up the project artistically; however, local organs and agencies must provide the materials and equipment. Public works involving likenesses of the Kims must be unconditionally prioritized and are taken as a measure of loyalty to the regime, meaning that foreign currency-earning units in the Hyesan region have no choice but to divert funds to the statue project.
“Regulatory agencies such as customs are giving priority to those imports ordered by units in charge of the statues,” the source also relayed. “The task of moving and planting the necessary trees to beautify the area around where the statues will stand has been handed to local enterprises and cooperative farms.”
The planned twin statues in Hyesan are just the latest of thousands of monuments to the Kim family dotted around North Korea, including major statues in every city and province in the country.
Due to its location at the foot of Mt. Baekdu and role in propaganda surrounding Kim Il Sung’s anti-Japanese guerilla struggle, Yangkang Province is home to a larger than average number of the monuments. Aside from the log cabin in which it is asserted Kim Jong Il was born, there are also statues of Kim Il Sung in the military uniform of a guerilla in Samjiyeon County, Bocheon County and Hyesan City, while the province also houses a state agency charged with preserving the revolutionary heritage of the region.
