Any space in North Korea where people live and work in a group - an ordinary house, office, conference hall, cinema, railroad station lounge, coach and fishing boat cabin - must have the portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jung Il hung on their walls.

When a family moves into a new house, top priority is given to looking after the portraits with care. Their wooden frames are covered by cotton or sponge to prevent them from being cracked during transportation, and then wrapped in vinyl paper. If possible damage is feared, some people disassemble them into frames, glass and portraits and reassemble them later.

Military servicemen carry the portraits with them when they go on field operations or training. In the field they live in semi-underground barracks, each accommodating a platoon of some 25 members. When barracks are completed, they first hang the portraits, without which they cannot enter them for living.

The same applies when a newly wed couple moves into a house allocated to them. Even after one manages to secure a house in the face of housing difficulties, none can live in the house unless the portraits are hung. Portrait photographs are available at the party office at work sites, but one has to obtain frames and pieces of glass on one's own. Wooden frames should be free from spots and lacquered so that they are not spoiled by woodworm. To display their loyalty to the Kims, senior and junior, some people embellish the frames.

Most troublesome is glass, which is precious in the North, to begin with. Quality glass, devoid of bends and other flaws, should be used for the portraits and it is by no means easy to obtain. At the least, glass produced by Nampo Glass Plant should be used for the purpose. According to a widely-spread episode, a certain newly-married couple had to put off moving into an allocated house for two weeks because they failed to get quality glass for the portraits, but finally managed to resolve the problem by cutting pieces of glass off a wardrobe owned by the bride's parents.

Once the frames are ready, citizens have them inspected by the lowest party outfit to see if they are without smears or blemishes. If the inspection is finished successfully, a party official visits the house to officiate a formal ceremony and lecture on how to keep the portraits, after which he hands over portrait photographs.

The portraits are supposed to be hung on a wall of a house or an office, opposite the entrance. Nails have to be struck tight so that the portraits won't be slanted to either side and nothing except the photographs of the Kims, senior and junior, can be pasted on the wall where the portraits are hung.

(Kim Kwang-in, kki@chosun.com )