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Category: WTF?

March 17, 2010

We Regret to Inform You That Your One-Way Ticket to Paradise is Non-Refundable

Back in late January, North Korea claimed that an American who feared becoming “cannon fodder in the capitalist [all-volunteer] military” had crossed over to the loving embrace of the relevant organ. Despite my own growing doubts about the story, the fact that the Swedes have since had two consular visits with him does suggest that he exists after all. The U.S. State Department says North Korea has allowed Swedish diplomats to meet a U.S. citizen who has been detained for...

Categories Defectors/WTF?
February 18, 2010

Succession Watch

A valued reader and friend writes in to draw my attention to reports that North Koreans named “Kim Jong Eun” have been ordered to change their names, echoing a 1974 edict withholding the name “Kim Jong Il” from use by mere mortals. My churlish friend suggests “Chung Hee” as an alternative. Nice. Just to put this in perspective, it’s blasphemy for a North Korean to be called Kim Jong Eun, yet there are millions of kids named Jesus all over...

Categories Kremlinology/WTF?
February 11, 2010

China: We Have No Dissidents!

CHINA declared on Thursday it had ‘no dissidents’, just hours after a Beijing court upheld an 11-year jail term for one of the country’s top pro-democracy voices. ‘There are no dissidents in China,’ foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu told reporters at a regular news briefing. [AFP, via Singapore Straits Times] Either they just strayed into Alejandro Cao de Benos’s alternative reality, or I just didn’t know they’d been there all along.

Categories China/WTF?
February 5, 2010

Your Arabic Word of the Day: “Zeb”

A high-ranking Pakistani diplomat reportedly cannot be appointed ambassador to Saudi Arabia because in Arabic his name translates into a phrase more appropriate for a porn star, referring to the size of male genitals, Foreign Policy reported. The Arabic translation of Akbar Zeb to “biggest d**k” has overwhelmed Saudi officials who have refused to allow his post there. Zeb has run into this problem before when Pakistan tried to appoint him as ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain,...

Categories WTF?
January 30, 2010

WTF? American Who Crossed Into North Korea May Have Defected

That latest American who crossed into North Korea looks more likely to be a Spartacist than Spartacus: South Korea’s Dong-a Ilbo newspaper said the man crossed into North Korea from China on Monday. It said an unidentified source in North Korea told the newspaper the 28-year-old man said he came to the country because he did not “want to become a cannon fodder in the capitalist military,” and “wants to serve in the North Korean military” instead. [Washington Post, via...

Categories Defectors/WTF?
October 30, 2009

Did Bill Clinton Meet Kim Jong Il’s Double?

Even for North Korea, this would be the WTF story of the year: A number of analysts here are convinced that not all the photos being released of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-il, are really photos of Kim Jong-il. Instead, they say, a look-alike has been standing in for him on some of the 122 trips he’s reportedly made this year to the countryside, factories, cultural events, military units, and all sorts of other venues. Some observers say the North...

Categories Diplomacy/Kim Jong Il/Ling/Lee Incident/WTF?
July 24, 2009

WTF? Michael Jackson Wanted to Ask Kim Jong Il to Free Laura Ling and Euna Lee?

If this doesn’t win “WTF of the Decade,” it’s an honorable mention: The last time I spoke to my friend Michael Jackson was about a month ago, 3 weeks before his shocking death. He had called me late one night to ask about another of my close friends who he had read about in the news. Laura Ling, a former colleague and friend, was detained originally by North Korean border guards along with her colleague Euna Lee on March 17th....

Categories Ling/Lee Incident/WTF?
June 15, 2009

Did Kim Jong Un Try to Assassinate Kim Jong Nam?

Life imitates Austin Powers! An aide to Kim Jong Un, the third and youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, planned to assassinate Kim Jong Nam, the eldest son of Kim Jong Il, KBS television reported Monday.  The plan was foiled by Chinese authorities, KBS said, citing a Chinese government source.  [Kyodo News] Well, maybe, but it’s too good not to blog.  Other Kim Jong Un rumors hold that he was actually in China recently as a “special...

Categories Kremlinology/WTF?
June 5, 2009

The Fury of the Smoking Manure

USA Today has a long, interesting, and amusing read on North Korean propaganda, including some extensive quotes by B.R. Myers.  Read the whole thing on your own, but I can’t resist quoting this: In a wild rhetorical flourish during a 2003 confrontation with the United States, state radio charged that the Earth itself was furious at the Americans and that even “piles of manure in the fields are fuming out smoke of hatred.”  [USA Today, Paul Wiseman] I, for one,...

Categories Humor/Satire/Propaganda/Unintended Humor/WTF?