North Korea calls U.S. Ambassador to U.N. “a political prostitute,” usual suspects fall silent

The regime that called President Obama a “wicked black monkey” and an “ugly subhuman,” and called Justice Michael Kirby “a disgusting old lecher with a 40-odd-year-long career of homosexuality,” has responded to Ambassador Nikki Haley’s statement at the U.N. last week that Kim Jong-un was not rational: KCNA Commentary Brands U.S. Representative at UN as Political Prostitute Pyongyang, March 11 (KCNA) — The U.S. representative at the UN Haley known for her capricious political savvy has now gone helter-skelter. ...

Diplomacy/Useful Idiocy/WTF?

March 4, 2016

North Korea denounces “rubbish-like provisions” of H.R. 757

It is my great honor to report, if somewhat belatedly, that for the second time, North Korean state media have denounced something I had a part in writing. While searching the Korean Central News Agency for an article on UNSCR 2270, I stumbled upon this: A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry issued the following statement on Saturday; The U.S. is getting evermore frantic with the anti-DPRK campaign obsessed with inveterate hostility toward it. “2016 North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act”...

Unintended Humor/WTF?

August 14, 2015

Is that a cabana you’re designing, or are you just happy to see me?

Curtis Melvin has made an unsettling discovery on Google Earth, at one of (probably) Kim Jong-Un’s palaces. Oh, my…. Hey, that looks just like …. As HRNK points out, this story has a less amusing side for the North Koreans who go hungry while His Porcine Majesty spends their lunch money on giant phalluses, and other “improvements” to his palaces.

Humor/Satire/Kim Jong Un/Unfortunate photo ops/WTF?

December 9, 2014

N. Korea: U.S. invented Ebola

Once again, KCNA’s source is an American crackpot — this time, a conspiracy theorist named Paul Craig Roberts. Even more incredibly, Roberts cites two professors, including one law professor, as his sources. Seriously — WTF is wrong with a higher education system that employs such whooping lunatics and stands them up in front of impressionable students?

Propaganda/WTF?

December 3, 2014

So I guess naming your dog “Kim Jong Un” is a definite no-no.

North Korea has ordered its people not to use the name “Kim Jong-un” in a bid to protect the supreme authority of the current leader, according to Pyongyang’s official document confirmed Wednesday. In January 2011, then leader Kim Jong-il issued a decree urging people with the same name to change it “voluntarily.” As North Korea is regarded as a totalitarian state, it is unclear whether the decree was actually voluntary. [Yonhap] Oh, it seems clear enough to me. When I...

Kim Jong Un/WTF?

November 5, 2014

Being Pyongyang’s top fashion designer must be a little bit like being Qandahar’s top sommelier

I guess this is the inevitable result when a country where gay people “can never be found” tries to create a fashion scene. OFK has the exclusive video: I’m no more an authority on fashion than I am on opera, but can I tell that Florence Foster Jenkins couldn’t sing.

WTF?

October 25, 2014

Charm offensive! N. Korean “diplomats” call Botswana’s UN Ambassador a “black bastard,” laugh at testimony of gulag survivors

Discussion about North Korea’s crimes against humanity is accelerating so quickly that it’s becoming difficult to keep up with it all. Last week, among other events, diplomats from Australia, Panama, and Botswana–which severed diplomatic relations with North Korea after the Commission of Inquiry published its report–held a Panel Discussion on human rights in the North. Not surprisingly, Botswana’s U.N. Ambassador is the latest target of North Korea’s racism, according to Vice News: At one point, members of the North Korean...

"United" Nations/Human Rights/Racism/WTF?

October 9, 2014

North Korean official, asked about human rights problems, cites … lack of public baths.

And even this is really the fault of imperialist sanctions, which prohibit the import of “luxury goods” to North Korea: When the North Korean officials at the U.N. briefing were asked Tuesday to identify human rights problems in their country, Choe Myong Nam, a North Korean responded, “We need some facilities where people go and enjoy a bath… Right now, due to problems in the economic field — that is due to the external forces hindrance — we are running...

Human Rights/North-South/WTF?

September 17, 2014

Yonhap: American caught trying to swim to North Korea

You see, if this guy had been reading OFK only yesterday, he’d have learned that North Korea doesn’t even want him. OFK: It’s not just a blog, it’s a public service. On the positive side, at least the South Koreans didn’t shoot him. Which reminds me of my son’s favorite line from South Park.

Defectors/Foreigners in N. Korea/WTF?

August 28, 2014

Other than the fact that Walt Disney didn’t invade Knott’s Berry Farm, build gulags, or

… purge thousands of former comrades and class enemies — and the fact that getting out of Disneyland is easier than getting in — I suppose you could say that “the worlds created by Walt Disney and Kim Il-sung are actually not that far apart.” It’s even less clear how the comparison adds to our understanding of North Korea.

WTF?

August 17, 2014

I’m sure the “so-called pope” meant no offense, but if KCNA hadn’t norksplained it for me …

I would not have seen it from this perspective: “We would like to ask the pope why he set about his south Korean trip the day when we are making latest tactical rocket test-fire according to our regular plan though there are a lot of days in the year.” Of course, given His Porcine Majesty’s crowded launch schedule and the absence of forewarning, it’s not exactly easy for His Holiness to squeeze in a visit to Korea in between. Sounds like the rockets were...

Anju Links/NK Military/WTF?

May 12, 2014

N. Korea doubles down on racism (plus, our latest op-ed at CNN.com)

Evidently, North Koreans are unfamiliar with The First Rule of Holes: Pyongyang, May 12 (KCNA) — The spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA on Monday accusing U.S. officials of pulling up the DPRK over its residents’ criticism of Obama reported by its media: The resentment expressed by individuals of the DPRK at Obama recently was a proper reaction to him who malignantly insulted and slandered the dignified DPRK during his...

Propaganda/WTF?

May 7, 2014

Really? North Korea called President Obama “a wicked black monkey”? (Update: It’s worse than that; Update 2, now with full translation)

Oh, yes they did: Park made waste water-like reckless remarks slandering the DPRK’s line on simultaneously developing two fronts after inviting her American master reminiscent of a wicked black monkey to visit south Korea on April 25…. The people are unanimous in deploring the fact that there is no remedy for curing Park’s mental disease as she has gone so mad with hurling mud at the nuclear deterrence of justice which the fellow countrymen in the north have had access...

AP Watch/Diplomacy/Racism/WTF?

April 30, 2014

Eagerly awaiting Christine Ahn’s reaction to North Korea’s sexism and homophobia

Now that North Korea’s state media have called South Korea’s female president a “whore,” a “prostitute,” a “crazy bitch,” and a “comfort woman,” no one will ever have to invent sexism again to deflect criticism of North Korea’s crimes against humanity, and whoever does will, from this date forward, have to argue her away around real, vicious, state-sponsored misogyny. What Park did before Obama this time reminds one of an indiscreet girl who earnestly begs a gangster to beat someone or a capricious whore who asks her...

Anju Links/North-South/Propaganda/Useful Idiocy/WTF?

April 22, 2014

N. Korea keeps it classy, calls Chair of U.N. Commission “a disgusting old lecher with 40-odd-year-long career of homosexuality”

Last week, the Honorable Michael Kirby, a retired Justice of the High Court of Australia, and the Chairman of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry for Human Rights in North Korea, was in Washington. It was my honor to be invited to two events with Justice Kirby — a small-group breakfast meeting (Kirby called this is a “barbarous” custom) hosted by the Australian Embassy, and a small-group dinner hosted by a member of the Board of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea....

"United" Nations/Human Rights/WTF?

February 27, 2014

In latest N. Korean turmoil, Chaz Bono promoted to Supreme Leader

Forget what I said this week — North Korea is still funny. Look what a reader spotted on this apparently official North Korean propaganda video, posted on YouTube at a channel that has always posted authentic North Korean material in the past. If this is a fake, well, they fooled me. Note the logo on the upper left-hand corner, which appears in some other apparently legit videos posted at the same channel. The video was a compilation of stills...

Unintended Humor/WTF?

January 9, 2014

So, Dennis — other than that, how is the trip going so far?

Dennis Rodman’s September trip to North Korea included a trip to Kim’s yacht near Wonsan, which Rodman described as “like going to Hawaii or Ibiza.” Evidently, this trip hasn’t been as pleasant: A day after the former basketball star sang “Happy Birthday” to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and led a squad of former NBA players in a friendly game, Rodman issued the apology through publicist Jules Feiler in an email message to The Associated Press. “I want to...

Sports/Useful Idiocy/WTF?

November 20, 2013

Elle Magazine makes a morally retarded fashion statement about North Korea

When I first saw the report here that an Elle Magazine columnist had declared “North Korea chic” to be one of this year’s top fashion trends, I immediately assumed that someone was failing to appreciate someone’s rather tasteless parody. When Americans do think of North Korea, they often infantilize it. Tasteless parodies may be our third-most common reaction to North Korea, after apathy and passive disgust. Sadly, having seen the screenshot of Joe Zee’s post, I think Zee was seriously...

Media Criticism/Useful Idiocy/WTF?

Category: WTF?