About

Kim Jong-un is the supreme leader of North Korea and chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea who assumed the office following the death of his father Kim Jong-Il in December 2011. Upon his ascension to power, Kim quickly became a widespread subject of online parodies and ridicule.

Online History

Ascension to Power

Prior to his de facto appointment as the successor of North Korea in the early 2010s, Kim was rarely seen or talked about in public, and as a result, much of details about his early life remain unknown or unverified. At the time of his public introduction, there was only one confirmed photograph of Kim, reportedly taken at age of 11 sometime in the mid-1990s. Outside of North Korea, Kim didn't gain any international recognition until January 2009, when South Korean news agencies reported that Kim Jong-Il had designated his third son, Kim Jong-Un, as his official successor. In the following years, Kim continued to climb up the ladder within the North Korean bureaucracy, holding several mid-to-high level positions in various civil and military committees.

Kim Jong-Il's Death

On December 19th, 2011, North Korea’s state-run news agency KCNA reported that Kim Jong-Il had died of a massive heart attack two days prior on December 17th at 8:30 a.m. (local time). Immediately after his death, the line of succession became rather clear as the state-controlled news agency began hailing Kim Jong-Un as the "great successor to the revolutionary cause of Juche," "outstanding leader of the party, army and people" and "a great person born of heaven," titles of propaganda which had been reserved for his predecessors.

TIME Person of the Year Campaign

On November 26th, 2012, users on 4chan‘s /b/ message board began to organize a way to fix Time Magazine’s annual Person of the Year voting event ^[9] so Kim Jong-Un would take the top place in the poll. Over the next 24 hours, multiple threads were posted to the forum with links to Pastebin^[5] documents of a VBS script as well as a downloadable Java-based program^[6] to help users vote in bulk.

An IRC channel was also set up with the name #OpFuckMorsy^[7], as a reference to Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi^[8] who stayed in the lead of the poll throughout November 26th. Later that same day, 4chan's latest poll scheme was featured on Betabeat^[10], the Daily Dot^[11]and Reddit^[12], where a screenshot of one of the threads earned more than 9182 upvotes and 2148 points overall. On December 3rd, The Daily Dot^[25] published a follow-up article, which reported that Jong-un had passed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi for the top spot with 2.9 million votes (shown below).

Spelling Out "KJU Gas Chamber"

The article also reported that 4chan users aimed to spell the word “KJU Gas Chambers” with the first letter of the top 14 candidate’s names in the poll, alluding to North Korea's gulag Camp 22 which has been accused of human rights violations from the international community. The same day, both ABC News^[27] and Gawker^[30] reported on the poll results. On December 4th, a new version of a script called “NKVoter”^[28] was released (shown below), which allows users to automate vote spamming. That same day, Jong-un’s votes reached 3.38 million.

On December 8th, Redditor DrHuxleyy submitted a post to the /r/4chan^[31] subreddit announcing that 4chan users managed to spell out "KJUGASCHAMBERS" in the Time poll and included a screenshot of the results (shown below). Within 48 hours, the post received over 13,200 up votes and 490 comments. The following day, Facepunch^[32] forums member koeniginator posted the same screenshot in a thread titled "4chan Does it again."

On December 10th, The Daily Dot^[33] published an article titled "'KJUGASCHAMBERS': How hackers stole Person of the Year poll," which included a statement by IRC user _js5, who created a java script automating the voting process:

"There really is nothing too exciting about the meaning, sorry to say. We chose it because it was clever, had semi-subtle offensive overtones, and wasn't as childish as our second choice of KFCBUTTSEX."

The Onion: Sexiest Man Alive for 2012

On November 14th, 2012, satirical news site The Onion^[13] posted an article naming Kim Jong Un as the site's Sexiest Man Alive for 2012. Five days later, Korean newspaper the Korean Times^[17] published an article on the Onion story. They noted in the Korean version that the Onion article was meant to be satirical, but left that out of the English translation. On November 27th, the official newspaper for the community party of China, the People's Daily^[14], reported on the story, complete with a 55 photo slideshow of the North Korean leader.

The North Korean newspaper's misreporting of the Onion article was featured on the Los Angeles Times^[15], the Atlantic^[16], the Guardian^[18], BBC News^[19] and Mashable.^[20] A news article on the subject from the Associated Press was submitted to the World News subreddit^[21]where it earned 13,686 upvotes and 2862 points overall. Following the news coverage, the Onion amended^[22] their article, linking to the “exemplary reportage” provided by the People’s Daily.

The Interview

On June 11th, 2014, Sony Pictures Entertainment's official YouTube channel^[48] uploaded the first teaser trailer for the film The Interview, which is scheduled to be released in October 2014. The film follows a talk show host and his producer, played by James Franco and Seth Rogen respectively, who are hired by the CIA to assassinate North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un after the two arrange an interview with him. Within two weeks the video gained over 5 million views.

On June 25th, a representative for the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement^[49] about the film, saying:

“If the United States administration tacitly approves or supports the release of this film, we will take a decisive and merciless countermeasure.”

The threat was covered by many sites the same day including TIME^[51], the BBC^[52] and The Daily Dot.^[53] Also the same day, Seth Rogen^[50] tweeted a joking response to the threat. In less than 48 hours, the tweet received over 8,000 favorites and over 5,000 retweets.

In late November 2014, weeks before the box office premiere of The Interview, Sony Pictures Entertainment's online database was hit by critical cyberattacks from a group of hackers who identified themselves as the Guardians of Peace (GOP), leading to the leak of private corporate data at an unprecedented volume in the tens of terabytes in early December. Among other things, the leaked data included many scripts and screeners of recently released or upcoming films to be distributed by the studio, like Fury, Annie, Still Alice, Mr. Turner and To Write Love On Her Arms, as well as personally identifiable information and corporate profiles of over 6,000 employees.

In the following week, cybersecurity experts began speculating that North Korea's state-run secretive hacking group, which has been dubbed "DarkSeoul" in the South Korean media, may have been behind the attacks as a retaliatory measure against Sony Pictures Entertainment for planning to release The Interview, citing circumstantial but telling evidences, including a suspicious IP address traced back to a location where North Korean agents are known to remain operative, similarities in the style of the hackers' messages posted during the 2013 cyberattacks against South Korea and the Sony Pictures incident (shown below), as well as the discovery of Korean characters in the software that was used to breach the system.

On December 4th, North Korean officials released a statement denying any involvement in the cyberattack, though one of them implied that the hack “might [have been] a righteous deed” of its supporters or sympathizers. Then on December 8th, GitHub user GOP released another large batch of internal data obtained from Sony Pictures employees’ computers in a post titled "Gift of GOP for 4th day: Their Privacy." In the post,^[56] the group demanded the company to stop the release of The Interview in order to prevent any further attacks or leaks:

We have already given our clear demand to the management team of SONY, however, they have refused to accept. It seems that you think everything will be well, if you find out the attacker, while no reacting to our demand. We are sending you our warning again. Do carry out our demand if you want to escape us. And, Stop immediately showing the movie of terrorism which can break the regional peace and cause the War! You, SONY & FBI, cannot find us. We are perfect as much. The destiny of SONY is totally up to the wise reaction & measure of SONY.

Response to Trump's United Nations Address

On September 19th, 2017, President Trump delivered his first speech to the United Nations, in which he condemned North Korea's nuclear armament and threatened to "totally destroy" the regime if the aggression continued, while describing Kim as a "Rocket Man" on a suicide mission.^[59] On September 21st, the state-controlled news agency KCNA released a televised address delivered in first-person by Kim in direct response to Trump's remarks, in which he effectively accepted the United Nations address as a challenge of nuclear escalation. In the English translation as provided by KCNA, Kim ended his counter-address with a statement describing Trump as a dotard, a dated pejorative for an old and senile person:

“I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire.”

Related Memes

Kim Jong Un Looking at Things

On December 18th, 2011, a parody blog titled Kim Jong Un Looking at Things^[1] launched. It was inspired by a similar blog utilizing state propaganda photos of his father, Kim Jong Il Looking At Things, which launched in October 2010. As of November 2012, the blog is still active.

Hungry Kim Jong Un

On December 19th, 2011, the day after "Kim Jong Un Looking at Things" was launched, Redditor GunnieGraves submitted a photo to the Funny subreddit^[2] depicting Kimg Jong Un pointing at something with the caption "Ok so…can I eat this?" (shown below, left). The same day, a Quickmeme^[3] titled Hungry Kim Jong Un was established, with an instance (shown below, right) reaching the front page the same day. As of November 2012, it has more than 220 submissions. Four days after the first Reddit post, a single topic Tumblr titled Kim Jong Un is Hungry^[4] launched, using other photos of the leader with similar food-related captions.

Kim Jong-Un Looking Through Binoculars

On March 8th, 2013, North Korea’s government-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) broadcasted footage of Kim inspecting a military facility in Jangjae and Mu Islets near the demilitarized zone (DMZ), during which he was seen intensely peering at South Korean islands across the border using a pair of binoculars. The images of Kim looking through his binoculars quickly inspired a series of combined GIFs featuring a variety of humorous scenes in the distance.

Kim Jong Un Bent Over

On August 7th, 2013, Twitter user Kety Shapazian tweeted a Reuters photograph of Kim firmly pressing the surface of a mattress with both of his fists (shown below) during an inspection of an apartment complex for scientists and university professors under construction in downtown Pyongyang. On March 4th, 2015, nearly two years after the image of Kim Jong Un bent over first surfaced, it became a subject of a photoshop meme on Reddit.

Reputation

Hoax: Kim Fed His Uncle to 120 Hungry Dogs

On December 13th, 2013, it was reported that Kim executed his own uncle Jang Song Thaek, a key figure in the North Korean regime widely considered to be the second most powerful man, following his arrest and expulsion from the post on charges of "anti-party and counter-revolutionary activities." Upon execution, North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency ran a 2700-word article detailing Jang's crimes.

That same day, Hong Kong's daily newspaper Wen Wei Po reported that Jang was executed by being stripped naked and fed alive to 120 hungry dogs, citing an account posted on the Chinese social media site Weibo. Although the story was largely ignored by the news outlets in China and South Korea, the sensational report was picked up by the Singaporean Strait Times^[36] on December 24th, eventually reaching the U.S. media and news blogs^[34][38] on December 26th.

Hoax: Kim Mandates His Hairstyle For Students

On March 25th, 2014, Washington D.C.-based North Korean news outlet Radio Free Asia^[39] (RFA) published a report about a recently-enacted mandate that allegedly requires all North Korean university students to sport the signature hairstyles worn by the leader Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Sol Ju. Citing unnamed local sources in the Southern Hamgyung region of the hermit nation, RFA added that, while the policy is said to have been treated more like a recommendation rather than a strictly enforced order, many students have reportedly expressed resentment towards the mandate since it went into effect in mid-March 2014.

The unconfirmed report was instantly picked up by several South Korean news publications^[40][41] and soon translated into English by The Korea Times^[47], which gave further boost to the story's viral momentum to spread across the English-language news outlets. That same day, numerous U.S. news outlets^{[42][43][44][45]} and blogs ran similar reports with headlines like “Every Man in North Korea Now Has to Get a Kim Jong-Un Haircut” (Gawker), "North Korea: Students required to get Kim Jong-un haircut" (BBC) and “North Korea mandates Kim Jong-un haircut for all men” (Washington Times). However, by the next day, the authenticity of the RFA report had come into question after the Associated Press^[46] skeptically reported that no such change in hairstyle has been noticed among the student population, citing numerous accounts of American tourists who have recently visited the country.

Personal Life

Not much is known about Kim Jong Un's personal life, including his birthday which may have been in either 1983 or 1984.^[23] He attended boarding school in Switzerland under a fake name, where he was said to have had poor grades^[25], but enjoyed skiing, the American NBA and actor Jean Claude Van Damme.^[24] Kim Jong Un married a North Korean woman named Ri Sol-ju in 2009, but this information was not made public until July 2012.^[26]

Search Interest

External References