Papers detailing the activities of North

Korea’s leaders Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, and the current Kim Jong Un are said

to be stored in hidden underground archives in Pyongyang and Jagang Province

under top security conditions, Daily NK has learned.

“Documents on the suryong (in this case, the Kim family) are being managed in underground storage areas in Pyongyang and

Jagang Province under airtight security,” a source from North Hamgyong Province

told Daily NK over the telephone on December 27th.

“Initially they store

it in a Pyongyang archive, and after some time has passed they will pick out

what requires permanent storage and then transfer papers and photographs to the

underground storage center in Jagang Province.”

This news was corroborated by an independent source in

South Hamgyong Province.

These two places combined have almost

everything related to the supreme leaders from the times of Kim Il Sung to Kim

Jong Un, he said, noting, “The archives contain everything on the family lineage

of the Kims and even details on those purged and punished by Kim Jong Un and

for which crimes.”

The storage centers are large enough to

tour in a car and meticulously built with temperature and humidity control to

prevent erosion. If the documents are found damaged, the manager overseeing

that area can immediately be demoted or, if severe, face punishment in a

political prison camp, according to the source.

Preservation of video footage and documents

related to the supreme leader is overseen by the Party’s Department of

Propaganda and Agitation, while the actual work is carried out by the Escort

Command. Also, experts from the Party’s history research centers and archive

specialists handle the storage and management of the resources.

“You can pretty much say that the vice

department director Kim Yo Jong (Kim Jong Un’s sister) is in charge of all the

idolization records,” he asserted. “The photographer who accompanies Kim Jong

Un on his ‘field guidances’ to take pictures for official records follows him

around continuously. This person has a lot of power and not many can tell that

person what to do.”

The underground storage centers are guarded

by Escort Command agents who, from a very young age, have been taught that the Suryong

must be protected with their own lives. Only the agents with exemplary track

records–covering everything from ideology to physical fitness– are assigned

to this job.

“The storage of idolization records on Kim

Il Sung and Kim Jong Il started back in 1974 after the Ten Principles for the

Establishment of Monolithic Ideology System were put in place,” he said. “In

the past, those at the minister-level were also considered part of this

historic record, but after that point, it only chronicled each top leader’s personal and political history.”