North removes Kim portraits

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SEOUL -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has ordered the removal of his portrait from display throughout the Stalinist state, signaling a scaling back of the decades-old adulation of the supreme ruler, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported yesterday.

The order to take down portraits was issued three weeks ago by Mr. Kim himself, who was concerned that he "has been lifted too high," the agency said.

Also yesterday, North Korea's official press dropped the glorifying description of "dear leader" for Mr. Kim, Kyodo News Service reported, citing the Japanese monitoring agency Radiopress.

The United States yesterday brushed off both reports.

"I'll leave it to the analysts," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli told a press briefing when asked about the reports. "Don't have a reaction."

A State Department official, speaking separately on the condition of anonymity, said, "I don't see anything to get worried about."

Radiopress said the North's Korean Central Broadcast, the Korean Central News Agency and other press simply described him as "general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, chairman of the DPRK National Defense Commission and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army."

The initials DPRK stand for North Korea's official name, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Yonhap quoted a source who has "good connections" in Pyongyang as saying Mr. Kim's portraits were being removed from all public places and homes.

Based on a telephone conversation with a North Korean official, the source said that now only the portraits of Mr. Kim's father -- Kim Il-sung -- can be seen at public buildings and residences in Pyongyang, Yonhap said.