During the severe flooding in North Hamgyong Province in late August, Daily NK has learned that a group of teachers and students in a school near Hoeryong died in the rapid currents while trying to save idolized material and portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.
"At Songhak High School located near Hoeryong, 7 teachers - including the vice-principal, and 6 students lost their lives while attempting to recover portraits and oil paintings out of the flood waters," a source in North Hamgyong Province reported to Daily NK on October 5.
"The vice-principal, fearing punishment for not properly protecting the idolization material, declared an emergency during the flood, and the teachers and students mobilized for the recovery task ended up losing their lives."
In North Korea, citizens who prioritize saving portraits of the Kim family are praised as heroes, while those who focus on the rescue of people or household goods are subject to ideological criticism. The state mandates a dogged adherence to the notion of "serving the leader first with eagerness" which essentially orders people to place the safety of portraits of the North Korean leaders before their own family.
Any failure to save portraits is recorded on an individual’s official records, and stays with them for life. There are also political penalties such as being expelled from the Party. In this way, the regime enforces loyalty by directly threatening people’s livelihoods and social standing.
"If it weren't for the vice-principal's forced display of loyalty, they could have avoided tragedy. It was the demand for loyalty that the Party so emphasizes that drove them to their deaths," the source added.
"The authorities are not even conducting proper loyalty evaluations for the group that died," the source continued, adding that "residents are commenting that they died in vain, and concluding that their own lives must now come first."
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Although the bodies of the teachers and students have not yet been found, the authorities remain focused on restoring idolization figures and houses, stating that those who died while trying to save the portraits were not the only victims of the flood.
According to separate source in North Hamgyong Province, the family members of the victims cannot approach the government directly about the matter, as it is directly under the authority of the General (Kim Jong Un).
They are instead redirecting their anger toward the late vice-principal saying, "He shouldn't have brought children into the dangerous rapids," and "How could the poor children rest in peace after dying in such miserable conditions?"
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