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Friday, November 16, 2007       Free Headline Alerts

Kim Jong-Il badges disappearing from North Korean chests

North Korean soldiers with their Kim badges.      
SEOUL — For decades, lapel badges with images of the "Great Leader" Kim Il-Sung and the "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-Il have been a mandatory accessory for North Koreans traveling outside their country.

Whether or not they were a true test of loyalty and national pride, those badges served as symbols of one of the most rigid societies in history.

Starting around September, however, South Korean intelligence sources began hearing reports that waitresses in North Korean restaurants in China were wearing North Korean flag badges instead of Kim badges.

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And earlier this month, workers at the South Korean-operated Kaesong industrial complex just north of the DMZ also began wearing the flag emblems rather than the Kim Jong-Il badges, according to several confirmed reports.

South Korean tourists visiting Beijing, Shenyang, Dandong and Yanji also reported that the servers in North Korean restaurants were no longer were wearing their Kim badges.

North Korean watchers here offered varying interpretations of the development:

Badges with the images of N. Korea's Kim Jong-Il and his father Kim Il-Sung.      
“It demonstrates Pyongyang’s will to open its society to the outside world and prepare for a successor system,” suggested Kim Young-Ro, a unification studies professor at Seoul National University. “By shifting loyalty from individuals to the nation, Kim’s successor would be able to secure a more stabilized and lasting system.”

“North Korea may be undergoing a change from idolizing the leader to emphasizing loyalty for the nation. This may indicate that the successor to Kim may not necessarily be his off-spring,” said Yu Ho-Yeol, a professor of North Korean studies at Korea University.

Researcher Paik Hak-Soon at the Sejong Institute said: “Kim Jong-Il may have decided to correct the distorted image of North Korea in the international community, especially at this juncture of improving relations with the United States.”

A senior Unification Ministry official said that his colleagues were seeking to determine whether this represents a fundamental change in the closed system or merely a gesture to demonstrate that it can be flexible, if need be.



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