Un of a Kind
News of the Weird again comes to you from North Korea:
North Korea has ordered people who share the name of leader Kim Jong Un to change their names, South Korea’s state-run KBS television reported on Wednesday.
North Korea imposed similar bans on the use of the names of its two former leaders, Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, and grandfather, Kim Il Sung, as part of propaganda drives to build cults of personality around them.
Kim Jong Un’s name is not allowed for newborns and people who share the name must not just stop using it but must change it on their birth certificates and residence registrations, KBS reported, citing an official North Korean directive.
I’m reminded of Steve Martin’s advice to criminals — make one crazy demand, so that in case you’re caught you’ll have a built-in insanity defense. “Give me a million dollars cash, a plane to Cuba, and the letter E stricken from the English language!”
Is Li’l Kim crazy enough to use nukes? He’s crazy enough to retrofit thousand of people’s names.
(H/T, James Joyner.)
Join the conversation as a VIP Member