North Korea is continuing to erect new statues of its dead leaders as part of the country's effort to strengthen a cult around the ruling Kim dynasty that has controlled the communist country for nearly seven decades, a U.S.-based news report said Sunday.

According to Radio Free Asia, the North is moving to place new statues of the country's founder Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il in front of the country's national defense college and a museum dedicated to the two Kims in Pyongyang.

Statues honoring the two dead men were set up in the Ryongsong district of the capital recently, reported the RFA, citing Curtis Melvin, a researcher at the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

The analyst said the latest satellite photos showed statues and memorial pillars going up, and that such moves seem to be a key policy decision made by the incumbent leader Kim Jong-un. Kim is the founder's grandson and took over the running of the country after the death of his father Kim Jong-il in late 2011.

Melvin told the media outlet that the erecting of statues sped up after the sudden death of Kim Jong-il.

Reflecting this data showed that since taking over the helm of the reclusive country, Kim Jong-un ordered more than 250 memorials celebrating Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il to be set up nationwide, with about 35 statues of the two men being erected so far.

South Korean watchers said creating a personality cult around the dynasty is designed to legitimize Kim Jong-un's rule over the population, who are taught to follow orders given by their leader without question. (Yonhap)