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Claims surfaced Tuesday that portraits of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had been removed from some public places like the Grand People's Cultural Palace, with talk going around that this was a sign of changes in the North Korean power structure.
Reuters, quoting a foreign diplomat in Pyongyang, reported that at public meeting places in North Korea, portraits of Kim Jong-il, which had hung side-by-side with those of his father Kim Il-sung, had been removed. Russia's Itar-Tass reported that a figure who had attended receptions in Pyongyang said, "Only a light rectangular spot on the yellow whitewashed wall and a nail have remained in the place where the second portrait used to be."
AFP quoted on European diplomat in Pyongyang as saying Kim's portrait had disappeared from a number of public places in the city, claiming they'd been gone since late August or early September. No specific reason was given for that, the news agency reported. The diplomat told AFP that many places in North Korea were off-limits to foreigners, but he was certain Kim Jong-il's portrait had been removed from Pyongyang's Grand People's Cultural Palace. " In Pyongyang there is always a lot of speculation and on this question too, there is a lot of speculation," he said.
David Zweig, a North Korea specialist at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said the move could be an attempt to do away with the cult of personality that surrounds Kim Jong-il, or it could be a sign of opposition to the North Korean leader.
Meanwhile, some are claiming that the portraits were not, in fact, removed. A Canadian tourist who visited North Korea and arrived in Beijing on Tuesday said that while he was in North Korea, the portraits of both Kim Jong-il and his father were hung side by side in offices, buildings and subways, just like they normally were.
One diplomat in Pyongyang also said that recently, security checks of vehicles and their passengers had been strengthened. Itar-Tass reported it had heard a secret order had been handed down to remove the portraits.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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