North Korea’s Politburo yesterday announced that Kim Jong Il’s body is being preserved in state for eternity. The Politburo also announced the construction of statues as well as ‘towers of eternal life’ and the establishment of giant smiling commemorative portraits of the man.
The announcement reveals the North Korean authorities’ desire to recreate the style of posthumous glorification which followed the death of Kim Il Sung, with a suite of new construction projects that closely resemble the glorification of the North Korean founder.
The funds needed to produce the giant portraits and towers for Kim Il Sung immediately following his death were gathered from the public purse through a special tax, and it appears the authorities will adopt a similar plan this time around.
One defector now living in South Korea who used to hold a high position in North Hamkyung Province told the Daily NK, “It takes several dozen tons of copper alone to make one of those statues; it looks like they are going to throw away an astronomical sum of money on glorification.”
When projects pursuant to Kim Il Sung’s death began, the authorities were not distributing any rations. They also ordered every people’s unit to produce kilograms of steel, cement and pebbles for the construction work. Even school students were mobilized for the effort.
The North’s newest statuary will not only be bankrolled by the public, of course; it will be constructed using their blood and sweat as well. Although key parts of major projects are entrusted to professional construction companies with trained engineers, it is the citizens who are likely to perform the majority of unskilled tasks.
The North Korean authorities are likely to move to make it easier for people who make large contributions to the construction effort to join the Workers’ Party, a measure that was also adopted when the large statue of Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang was built.
One defector from Chongjin in North Hamkyung Province recalled, “There was one person who contributed 20 tons of cement and 10 tons of steel bars to the construction of the tower of eternal life on the main street in the Pohang district of Chongjin, and that person was handed Party membership.”
The government has not yet made any announcements on exactly where the Kim Jong Il statue will be erected, however the chances seem slim that it will be erected next to the main Kim Il Sung statue on Mansudae Hill.
It would not just be poor form for such a statue to be established in a place where the achievements of Kim Il Sung are acclaimed, but to do so would also require the authorities to create new open spaces with lawns and lighting to accommodate large numbers of visitors, and the current facilities are not suited to that.
Instead, among the most likely places for the Kim Jong Il statue is Gwangbok Street. In the same way that the large Kim Il Sung statue was established in a location where it could overlook the city of Pyongyang, symbolizing his role as the city’s creator, official propaganda about Kim Jong Il having played the lead role in overseeing construction of that part of Pyongyang during the 1980s would lend itself to such an outcome.
