Kim Jong Un not Time's Person of the Year (yet?)
Time magazine announced Thursday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been voted as Time's Person of the Year in its readers' poll.
Kim won 5.6 million votes -- more than double the first runner up, "The Daily Show's" Jon Stewart.
Kim is not Time's Person of the Year, however -- that is decided by the editors of Time and will be announced on Dec. 19. And the North Korean leader's win in the reader's poll may have been targeted by the link-sharing sites 4chan and Reddit to give him the edge.
The link to Time's readers' poll was posted on Reddit a few times in the last month. One headline reads, "Operation: 'Kim Jong Un for Time's Person of the Year' Go!!!" The link connects to a 4chan screenshot soliciting votes for Kim on Time's website.
This wouldn't be the first time Kim was at the center of an online joke. The satirical news site The Onion named Kim its "Sexiest Man Alive." The story got picked up Chinese newspaper The People's Daily, which quoted The Onion in earnest, saying: "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."
Time seems to be having fun with the reader poll, but it does not appear that the results will sway the magazine's annual choice for Person of the Year.
"While we don't make our selection based on the poll results," TIME executive editor Radhika Jones said in an interview, "it's always interesting to see where some of our preferred candidates end up."
