November 16, 2004 12:00 PM

Some public portraits of N.Korea's Kim removed

BEIJING (Reuters) - Portraits of Kim Jong-il have been removed from some public meeting halls in
North Korea, a Pyongyang-based diplomat says, but others say the leader's picture remain prominently
displayed.

It was not immediately clear on Tuesday what the removal of some portraits meant about the political fortunes of the North Korean dictator, but the diplomat said the pictures had been down for some time.

Portraits of Kim were ubiquitous in homes, offices and public buildings across North Korea, where they have hung prominently for years beside a picture of his late father, the reclusive communist state's founder Kim Il-sung.

"In some meeting places where they used to be placed side by side the one portrait has been removed," the diplomat told Reuters by telephone from Pyongyang.

"In some places they have been replaced with portraits of Kim Il-sung," he said.

Kim has poked fun at the cult of personality pervasive in North Korea, and analysts said the removal of some portraits could be an indication he wanted to tone it down in line with incremental economic reforms.

Russian news agency Itar-Tass quoted an unidentified foreign diplomat as saying guests invited to official receptions in the North Korean capital Pyongyang had seen only portraits of state founder Kim Il-sung.

"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," the source said.

FAMILIAR FACE

But a Canadian tourist who landed in Beijing from Pyongyang on Tuesday said he saw Kim's portrait beside his father's frequently, including in office buildings and on subway cars as usual.

"Just yesterday, actually, I was in an office and saw the pictures on the wall," he said, adding they were also up in the subway.

Portraits of the younger Kim were also hanging as usual outside the North Korean embassy in Beijing.

North Korea has been embroiled in a two-year-old crisis over its nuclear arms programmes and the United States, Japan, South Korea, China and Russia have teamed up to try to persuade the North to scrap the weapons programmes.

An analyst at Radiopress, a Japanese news agency that monitors North Korean media from Tokyo, said there were no signs of anything unusual in the broadcasts it monitored.

"Nothing seems different," he added.

The diplomat quoted by Tass said officials in the hardline communist state had offered no explanation for the change.

He added that, according to his information, a secret directive had been issued to remove portraits of Kim Jong-il.