Every nation’s leader has to face one sooner or later and North Korea’s is no different. The DPRK was rocked recently by a scandal involving their Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un when a report came out that he once admitted he was “kind of boring” while visiting orphans at a hospital.
Although various rumors about Kim have circulated in other countries before, this would be the first time we know of that North Korea’s tightly controlled media will have reported a negative comment about him. Some fear this is only the beginning; further compliment-fishing remarks may come next such as,“Is that another grey hair?” or “You’re so lucky! Anytime I eat chocolate it goes right to my butt.” In great enough numbers these little utterances may seriously endanger his carefully engineered image of infallibility.
According to the North Korean newspaper Labor Daily in an article dated 12 August, a television program was following Kim Jong-un as he paid a visit to some hospitalized orphans. During the meeting with their head of state, the show’s producer asked one of the children what they thought. “It was like watching the Supreme Commander on TV,” said the child to which Kim replied, “That boring, huh?” The child wisely disagreed saying, “It was fun.”
Much like the previous leaders of North Korea, Kim Jong-un’s visits to hospitals, bakery’s, army bases, and cow pastures have received heavy media coverage from domestic news sources. However, all of it is strictly vetted by the Worker’s Party of Korea to ensure it casts them and their chairman in the best light. This light seems to have experienced a small flicker though, despite the hospital visit having taken place back in May which would suggest it went through the proper, excruciatingly slow channels.
Here is a KCTV report of Kim Jong-un visiting Taesongsan General hospital. This was taken in May of this year but I don’t think it’s the same visit as reported in Labor Daily. It’s hard to tell with this guy though. He visits more hospitals than a personal injury attorney.
Whether this was an oversight by the television show or deliberate act of modesty on Kim Jong-un’s part remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain. If you asked 100 random people to describe Kim Jong-un in one word, dollars to donuts “boring” would not come up once.
Source: MSN Sankei News (Japanese)
Video & Image: YouTube – NORTH KOREA TODAY