A North Korean mother has been threatened with jail after saving her two children from a house fire but allowing portraits of North Korea’s leaders to burn.
The woman has been placed under investigation by the country’s Ministry of State Security after a fire broke out in a home shared by two families in Onsong County, North Hamgyong Province, close to the Chinese border.
Both sets of parents were out at the time the fire started but raced back to save their families after seeing smoke. In the process, one set of portraits was destroyed.
North Korea demands that every home display paintings of its past leaders, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, and sends inspectors to ensure that they do.
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According to the Hermit Kingdom’s laws, all depictions of the Kim family must be treated with the same reverence as the men themselves meaning failure to care for the portraits properly is a serious crime.
If found guilty, the mother is facing a lengthy prison sentence with hard labour.
North Korea demands that every home display paintings of its past leaders, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, and sends inspectors to ensure that they do.
According to the Hermit Kingdom’s laws, all depictions of the Kim family must be treated with the same reverence as the men themselves meaning failure to care for the portraits properly is a serious crime.
If found guilty, the mother is facing a lengthy prison sentence with hard labour.
Jun Yoo-sung, who fled the country in 2005, recalled such an incident in a 2015 interview.
‘When a house was set on fire, some children were found burnt to death, holding on to those portraits,’ she said.
Han Hyon-Gyong, 14, drowned trying to save her family’s Kim portraits after a flash flood struck her home in Sinhung County, South Hamkyong, in 2012.
North Koreans who rescue their Kim portraits from floods and fires are feted as heroes especially if they die in the attempt.
