(From Religion News Blog. Also, see this post.)
Many North Koreans died a "heroic death" after last week's train explosion by running into burning buildings to rescue portraits of leader Kim Jong-il and his father, according to the North's official media. Portraits of Kim and his late father, national founder Kim Il-sung, are mandatory fixtures in every home, office and factory in the hardline communist state of 23 million. All adults are required to wear lapel pins bearing images of one or both Kims. [...] The prison diaries of North Korean defectors refer to people imprisoned for accidentally defacing portraits of the Kims.
