Statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il at the headquarters of the Ministry of People’s Security in Pyongyang, after a dedication ceremony held on 14 April 2013 (Photo: KCNA)
DPRK state media reported that on 14 April (Sunday) statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il were unveiled and dedicated at the headquarters of the Ministry of People’s Security [MPS]. Among those in attendance were Supreme People’s Assembly [SPA] President Kim Yong Nam, DPRK Cabinet Premier Pak Pong Ju, Korean Workers’ Party [KWP] Security Kim Ki Nam, Minister of State Security Gen. Kim Won Hong along with “officials of party and armed forces organs, officials of the ministry and security workers, service personnel of the Korean People’s Internal Security Forces (KPISF), officials and employees of units which rendered devoted services for the building of the statues, helpers and Pyongyangites.” The statues were unveiled by “senior party and state officials.”
Members of the DPRK central leadership and senior MPS officials attend a dedication ceremony of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il at MPS Headquarters in Pyongyang on 14 April 2013 (Photo: KCNA)
An honor guard delivers a floral basket sent by Kim Jong Un to a ceremony dedicating statues of his grandfather, late DPRK President and founder Kim Il Sung, and his father, late leader Kim Jong Il, at the headquarters of the Ministry of People’s Security in Pyongyang on 14 April 2013 (Photo: KCNA)
The all-woman brass band of the Korean People’s Internal Security Forces play a musical programme during the 14 April 2013 unveiling ceremony. In the background is the Ponghwa Art Theater. (Photo: KCNA)
After the statues were unveiled, a floral basket sent on behalf of Kim Jong Un (Kim Cho’ng-u’n) was presented and placed before the statues. Floral baskets were also presented and placed and before the statues, sent jointly by the KWP Central Committee, SPA Presidium and DPRK Cabinet, and one sent jointly by the Ministry of People’s Security and the Korean People’s Internal Security Forces Political Bureau. Ceremony participants bowed in front of the statues. In his first significant appearance since being appointed Minister of People’s Security, Col. Gen. Choe Pu Il delivered a dedication speech. According to KCNA, Col. Gen. Choe said “it is the ardent desire of political defenders of the party to praise the personalities of the peerlessly great men and glorify them for all ages by building their statues. All the security workers and service personnel of the KPISF built the statues on the highest level with immense loyalty” and Choe “called on them to hold the Generalissimos in high esteem as the eternal sun of Juche with noble revolutionary conscience and sense of moral obligation and defend and glorify their undying revolutionary feats.”
After Choe’s speech, the all-woman brass band and a military band of the Korean People’s Internal Security Forces played music, whilst honor guards of the Korean People’s Army’s three conventional service branches, the air and anti-air command and the Worker-Peasant Red Guards marches past the statues. Following the honor guard presentation, ceremony participants looked at the statues and were briefed about the their construction.
Filed under: 2013 Day of the Sun, Administration Department, Amnokgang Sports Team, Central Committee, Central Military Committee, Civil Defense Department, colonel general, corps command, critical infrastructure, DPRK Cabinet, DPRK Premier, Gen. Choe Pu Il, Gen. Kim Won Hong, Guard Command, Kim Family, Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un, Kim Ki Nam, KJI Personal Secretariat, Korean People's Army (KPA), Korean People's Air Force, Korean People's Army Air Force, Korean People's Internal Security Forces, Korean Workers' Party (KWP), kpif, Minister of People's Security/KPISF construction units, ministry of people's security, Ministry of People's Security engineering units, Ministry of State Security, National Defense Commission (NDC), North Korean press, Organization and Guidance Department, Pak Pong Ju, Party elders, Political Bureau, reserve training units, Secretariat, State Security Department, Supreme People's Assembly, worker peasant red guard