Bordering on the absurd

Sometimes you read something about Kim Jong-il that makes you wonder if it's parody. Consider this example of his capriciousness and utter control over his people, from the Daily NK:

You idiots!” said Kim Jong Il swearing at his attendants while looking at a potato field through the car window during his visit to Daehongdan on August 9th, 1999.

A large banner with the slogan saying “Potato is white rice!” was hanging at the entrance to every potato field.

In fact, the local cadres and officials from Propaganda and Agitation Department under the Workers’ Party ordered to put up the banner in every potato field because when Kim Jong Il visited the county a year ago, he said to them, “Potato is the same as white rice.”

Of course, the potato cultivation is important. However, it is basically nonsense that growing potato is as important as growing white rice, which is the staple food of the Korean diet. Kim Jong Il forgot that it was him who said the nonsense.

Pulling up his car in front of the banner at the potato field in Daehongdan County, Kim Jong Il said yelling, “Who the heck said those words? Does it make any sense that potato is white rice?”

On that day, as his first schedule of the day’s program, he visited a field where a new kind of potato starts to be reaped.

When Kim Jong Il was getting out of his car, Kim Sung Jin, a chief secretary of the county came running toward him, only to be brought to a halt by Kim Jong Il who raised his hand gesturing him to stop.

“Does it make any sense to you that potato is the same as white rice?”

Having sensed something went wrong, Kim Sung Jin’s face turned pale. He had no idea when Kim Jong Il would start pouring out his anger on him. He just stood still frozen with fear. (He said later to his colleagues, “It was like the whole world turned upside down.”)

Kim Jong Il putting his hands under his armpits was gazing at something for quite some time. It was a large message board engraved with Kim Jong Il’s own words, “Potato is the same as white rice.” Looking at the board quite a while, Kim Jong Il burst into a laughter.

Pointing at the board, Kim Jong Il asked of Kim Sung Jin who was standing vacantly “Hey, did I really say that?” Kim Sung Jin answered in a position of attention, “Yes, General. You said those words when you visited Daehongdan on October 1st last year.”

Kim Jong Il, looking dumbfounded and awkward, looked at the board again and said, “Oh, my! You fools took my words too far. How could potato ever be the same as the rice? Pull it down right away!”

“Yes, Sir!,” Kim Sung Jin answered out loud. Then, he ran off to his men and ordered them to get rid of the banner immediately.