Call it the next front in East Asian cyberwarfare: A Chinese man has created a video mocking North Korea’s fearless leader Kim Jong-un by placing him and other world leaders in boxing matches, dance classes, and a backyard monster brawl, and the North Korean government has taken notice.
The three-and-a-half-minute video shows Kim, President Barack Obama, and Russian President Vladimir Putin dancing, fighting, and generally cutting loose by superimposing their heads on other people’s bodies. At one point, the man bearing the face of North Korea’s reclusive strongman dances a jig in front of a crowd. Almost immediately, however, the man’s pants fall down, as Kim’s face grins with what looks in the video like sheepishness.
While Obama and Putin have yet to issue statements on this montage of high-level diplomatic adventures, the North Korean government has asked the Chinese government to take down the video.
The South Korean publication Chosun Ilbo reports that the video was created by a man with the last name Zhang who was studying abroad at a South Korean university. Their source also states that the regime believes the video “seriously compromises Kim’s dignity and authority.”
Some of the clips in the video that North Korea may find most repugnant include scenes of Kim and Obama dancing, laughing, and practicing kung fu together. Adding insult to injury is the fact that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon referees their practice session.
In another clip, Kim and his father, the late Kim Jong-il, stand in front of a pair of microphones and dance to music. Evidently Mr. Zhang, not content merely with lampooning the current dictator of North Korea, decided to poke fun at his predecessor as well.
It’s unlikely that this video, which has been widely shared and mirrored to other video hosting services, is going away anytime soon. North Korea directed its takedown request to the notoriously repressive Chinese government, but absent a valid copyright infringement claim, their control over YouTube submissions is limited. Describing the diplomatic back-and-forth following North Korea’s request, Chosun Ilbo story reads, “Beijing was unable to oblige.”
H/T Gawker | Photos via YouTube | remix by Jason Reed
