Deceased N. Korean sailors honored for saving leaders` portraits

SEOUL, Jan. 22 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has poured honors on sailors who drowned
to death while saving the portraits of the country's leaders when their cargo
ship sank off the coast of China in November, the communist state's official
media reported Friday.
Five died and 15 were rescued when the ship, the Jisong 5, sank in strong winds
on Nov. 17 while heading toward the northeastern Chinese port city of Dalian.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), monitored in Seoul, said the awards,
including the title of Labor Hero and the Order of the National Flag 1st Class,
were posthumously conferred Thursday on the late sailors for "defending the
headquarters of the revolution."
The headquarters refer to the portraits of late North Korea founder Kim Il-sung
and his son, Kim Jong-il, who rules the country with a massive cult of
personality built around his family.
The country ranks the portraits and another one depicting Kim Il-sung's late
wife, Kim Jong-suk, as the greatest treasures the armed forces and the people
must safeguard in either war or peace.
Praising the late sailors for their "heroic self-sacrificing spirit and the
revolutionary comradeship in rough wind and waves," the regime delivered the
medals to the bereaved and honored the survivors with medals, the KCNA said.
The report did not say how the sailors managed to save the portraits but not
their own lives.
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