Here's the Wall Street Journal Asia's KoreaRealTime blog:
If you enter the name of late North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il into a Google search field, you’ll likely get three suggestions: “dead,” “died” and “looking at things”—such is the influence of the eponymously named blog dedicated to posting official state photos of “the Dear Leader” doing just that.*It’s what he would’ve wanted…
The creator of the website, which has taken on pop culture status second only to the caricature of Mr. Kim as a lonely, lunatic puppet in Hollywood film “Team America,” said he was inspired to launch “Kim Jong-Il Looking At Things” after seeing the Boston Globe’s photos of Mr. Kim in the paper’s The Big Picture segment, which features themed collections of photos.
“It was basically a short version of the blog. Kim Jong-Il. Same hat, same glasses, same coat. Looking at things. I couldn’t believe this was what passed for propaganda in North Korea, he seemed a bit senile in most of them. And so it was born,” said João Rocha, an art director at advertising firm Y&R in Lisbon who said he had never previously had any particular interest in the reclusive regime.
The site, which features photos of Mr. Kim, surrounded by an entourage, inspecting a wide array of mundane objects from corn on the cob to—most recently—a hot pink sweater, usually attracts around 500,000 views per month, but by Monday at 11am Portugal time, it had already scored 300,000 hits that day alone, said Mr. Rocha....MORE
