Kim Jong Un "Sexiest Man Alive?" China paper falls for joke

This picture taken by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on January 23, 2012 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visiting the Mangyongdae Revolutionary School at Pyongyang for the celebration of the lunar New Year. / KNS/AFP/Getty Images

BEIJING Satirical news site The Onion has claimed another international victim.

Back in September, it was the English-language version of Iran's official Fars news agency, which, citing the spoof site, published a report on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad polling drastically better among rural white Americans than President Obama.

Now, the online version of China's Communist Party newspaper has hailed a report by The Onion naming North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un as the "Sexiest Man Alive."

The People's Daily on Tuesday ran a 55-page photo spread on its website in a tribute to the round-faced leader, under the headline "North Korea's top leader named The Onion's Sexiest Man Alive for 2012."

Quoting The Onion's spoof report, the Chinese newspaper wrote: ""With his devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his strong, sturdy frame, this Pyongyang-bred heartthrob is every woman's dream come true."

"Blessed with an air of power that masks an unmistakable cute, cuddly side, Kim made this newspaper's editorial board swoon with his impeccable fashion sense, chic short hairstyle, and, of course, that famous smile," the People's Daily cited the Onion as saying.

The photos the People's Daily selected include Kim on horseback squinting into the light and Kim waving towards a military parade. In other photos, Kim is wearing sunglasses and smiling, or touring a facility with his wife.

People's Daily could not immediately be reached for comment. A man who answered the phone at the newspaper's duty office said he did not know anything about the report and requested queries be directed to their newsroom on Wednesday morning.

It is not the first time a state-run Chinese newspaper has fallen for a fictional report by The Onion.

In 2002, the Beijing Evening News, one of the capital city's biggest tabloids at the time, published as news the fictional account that the U.S. Congress wanted a new building and that it might leave Washington. The Onion article was a deadpan spoof of the way sports teams threaten to leave cities in order to get new stadiums.

Previous winners of The Onion's "Sexiest" crown include Syrian strongman Bashar Assad, convicted Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff and Unabomber Ted Kaczynski.

[CPTALLEN]

I love it! PSYOP at work. CIA and NSA could use this type of PSYOP to disrupt the anti - internet PRC. Clueless fools.

[jaykay3141]

The Chinese are amateurs in the gullibility contest. Look for any story in The Onion or Weekly World News with "Obama" or "Romney" in the headline and there'll be hundreds of raving right-wing nutcase comments - How DARE Obama spend taxpayers' money to build a vacation home on the Moon? If Mitt now owns Disney World it's his right to fire Goofy and Minnie!

No matter that the accompanying stories are about personal appearances by Bat Boy or exploding Kardashian silicone. These fools pounce on the fake stories like snarling rottweilers trying to tear apart a stuffed rabbit. They don't care that it's fake and probably will choke them if they eat it. All they know is that it looks like a bunny so they (slobber) (yelp) HAVE TO (growl) KILL IT!

[NeoGraphix00]

As funny as the joke is, have to remember that someone will probably lose their life over this. That part is not so funny.

[HM8432]

Who knows, maybe in the Oriental culture Kim is considered a stud for whatever reason. If so, it would be easier to see how the Chinese could fall for the joke.

[HM8432]

No, the joke's on you! Read the article...it was a CHINESE newspaper (the People's Daily) that re-published the Onion's article as being the real deal about Kim the Obese (who IS Korean as you mentioned) being the 'Sexiest Man Alive.'

[tapittwice]

Actually sarcasm is very much confined to the English speaking world and many countries and cultures throughout the world are unfamiliar with it, as this article seems to prove.

[Scimajor]

"Actually sarcasm is very much confined to the English speaking world .."

That statement is an urban myth and is completely false.

[TheSeeker2012]

Wow. To think these people have access to nuclear weapons!

[jefforsythe]

The brutal Chinese Communist Party is so corrupt and far away from basic truths in its behaviour, it can no longer recognize good from bad, right from wrong and satire from facts.This is a fact.When dealing with Western Governments and businesses, they have to have on hand advisors to let them know how to react because they are so lost because of their own brutality and lack of a good moral base. Since they took power in 1949, they have murdered over eighty million of their own people and are now attempting the genocide of tens of millions of innocent Falun Dafa practitioners by the use of torture, slavery, organ harvesting and murder.The CCP has literally lost its soul. This is just my understanding, thank you.

[cuffhead]

Does anyone in North Korea know how to cut hair? A bowl in NK is not just for eating out of.

[nomoreniceguy]

I love the Onion!

[dave123173]

lol see him now hair blowing in the wind standing beside a nuke lol funny