The world is a very strange place. And there are more than a few odd ducks within it. Today’s the 68th birthday of North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il.
Without any attempt at editing, here’s a little selection from the nice folks at Wikipedia:
Like his father, Kim has a fear of flying, and has always traveled by private armored train for state visits to Russia and China. The BBC reported that Konstantin Pulikovsky, a Russian emissary who traveled with Kim across Russia by train, told reporters that Kim had live lobsters air-lifted to the train every day.
Kim is said to be a huge film buff, owning a collection of more than 20,000 video tapes. His reported favorites are the Friday the 13th, Rambo, James Bond, and the Godzilla series, as well as Hong Kong action cinema, and any movie with Elizabeth Taylor. He is the author of the book On the Art of the Cinema. In 1978, on Kim’s orders, South Korean film director Shin Sang-ok and his actress wife Choi Eun-hee were kidnapped in order to build a North Korean film industry. In 2006 he was involved in the production of the Juche-based movie Diary of a Girl Student – depicting the life of a girl whose parents are scientists – with a KCNA news report stating that Kim “improved its script and guided its production”.
Kim reportedly also enjoys basketball. Former United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright ended her summit with Kim by presenting him with a basketball signed by NBA legend Michael Jordan. Also an apparent golfer, North Korean state media reports that Kim routinely shoots three or four holes-in-one per round (The odds of making a single hole-in-one in one round are around 1 in 5000). His official biography also claims Kim has composed six operas and enjoys staging elaborate musicals. Kim also refers to himself as an Internet expert.
Defectors claim that Kim has 17 different palaces and residences, including a private resort near Baekdu Mountain, a seaside lodge in the city of Wonsan, and a palace complex northeast of Pyongyang surrounded with multiple fence lines, bunkers, and anti-aircraft batteries.
Yeah, the world is a strange place…
