North Korean State-Run News Agency Responds To Failed Missile Launch With 33

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/04/north_korean_st.php

North Korean State-Run News Agency Responds To Failed Missile Launch With 33 Stories Praising "Supreme Leader"


Extra! Extra! Read all about it. Missile? What missile? Kim Jong-un's friggin' awesome!

***snip


If you haven't already heard about it (it was pretty much the biggest story in the world yesterday), you probably live in North Korea, where the state-run -- and only -- news agency barely mentioned the failed rocket launch (natch). It instead ran 33 stories praising the country's dictator, Kim Jong-un, and his grandfather, Kim Il-sung -- who founded the country's current dictatorship, and whose 100th birthday was being celebrated by attempting to launch a rocket into space, defying international warnings not to do so.


Just to see how the North Korean government was spinning the missile story, we checked out the Korean Central News Agency's website last night -- just hours after the bungled launch -- and as Piers Morgan and every other talking head was yammering on about it on cable news shows, we could only find a tiny article about the missile on the KCNA website. Rather than further coverage of the biggest story in the world, KCNA went with dozens of "news" articles congratulating Jong-un for his recent "election" to be the first secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, and honoring his grandfather.

As every other news outlet on planet earth was leading with headlines like "North Korean Rocket Said to Fail Right After Liftoff," and "North Korea Rocket Launch Fails," KCNA published a paragraph about the failed launch -- providing few details, according to the BBC and other news outlets with Korean translators -- and then ran with the following list of headlines:

Kim Jong Un Receives Congratulations from Hu Jintao

Congratulations to Kim Jong Un from Syrian President

Congratulations to Kim Jong Un from Lao Party Leader

Gifts Presented

Gifts to Kim Il Sung