A tragedy in North Korea: a schoolgirl drowned during a flood, trying to save the portraits of the former leaders of North Korea – Kim Jong-Il and Kim Il-sung. Such acts of self-sacrifice are not rare in this country – people risk their own lives and the lives of their children to save «sacred portraits».

The incident took place on June 11 – a 14-year-old girl managed to carry two portraits wrapped in polyethylene out of a flooded house, while trying effortlessly to stay afloat, holding the portraits over her head. The girl died, drowning along with the portraits.

After the girl’s death, her mother was awarded with an honorary prize named after Kim Jong-Il. The school where the girl studied will be named after her. The girl’s parents and teachers also received awards.

This is not the first such case in North Korea. Thanks to the personality cult in the country, the portraits of former North Korean leaders are widely distributed throughout the country. They are usually kept at homes, bureaus and public buildings. The local media often writes about such heroic deeds; occasionally such deeds claim the lives of those people, AFP reports.

In 2007, some farmer lost his wife and children in a landslide, but managed to save the portraits. In 2008, on the other hand, during a flood some worker saved the portraits, but paid for it with the life of his five-year-old daughter. The man was carrying the portraits in his hands, but his daughter was sitting on his back. While he was looking for a safe spot, his daughter could not hold on to her father’s back and fell into the water. Another man rushed to save the portraits in his flooded home, where he drowned in the end. If the local media are to be believed, his remains were found after a week and he was still clinging to the portraits he held close to his chest up until the bitter end.

Ref: 102.109.109.2280