About

Best Korea is a satirical nickname given to North Korea under the humorous assumption that it is the better of the two divided nations on the Korean peninsula. On discussion forums and in comments, the expression "North Korea is Best Korea" is often used as a sarcastic response to the North Korean government's communist utopian propaganda posters and videos that are circulated online.

Origin

One of the earliest use of the term can be attributed to a YouTube video titled "North Korea is Best Korea" uploaded by otuzniak on June 28th, 2008. The video contains scenes from North Korean military parades and images of Kim Jon-Il. As February 21, 2015, the video has over 115,000 views.

Spread

On January 12th, 2009, the phrase was used in a reply post to a discussion thread about the average IQ of an individual by nationalities on 4chan's /jp/ (Okaku culture) board.^[2] On April 9th, 2009, a thread titled "Best Korea was here" was posted on the same board^[7], this time, with an iconistic painting of the deceased North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il captioned with the phrase "North Korea is Best Korea."

In June 2010, the catchphrase was used as name of the Anonymous campaign where 4chan users rig an online poll to select North Korea as a destination in Justin Bieber’s “My World” tour.

On May 22nd, 2011, the subreddit /r/bestkorea was launched with a variety of humorous image macros based on propagandistic images of North Korea and the leader Kim Jong-Un.^[5] In addition, search queries for North Korea on the tongue-in-cheek wiki sites Uncyclopedia^[3] and Encyclopedia Dramatica^[4] are redirected to their articles titled "Best Korea." Meanwhile on Tumblr^[6], the hashtag #best korea has become associated with a wide range of jokes relating to North Korea and Kim Jong Un in general.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References