The curse of satirical website the Onion strikes again. The People’s Daily, the official Chinese Communist Party paper, ran a 55-page photo spread of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and congratulated him after he was declared the Onion’s “Sexiest Man Alive” for 2012.
“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,” the Onion said, with a photograph of the round-faced young leader sitting on a horse. The People’s Daily ran the impressive 55-page photo spread on its website, unaware it was satire. The link was taken down once subeditors realised the gaffe.
China is North Korea’s only remaining significant ally and the comrades describe their relations as being “as close as lips and teeth”.
Before the page was taken down, the Onion updated the story to include a link and wrote: “For more coverage on The Onion’s Sexiest Man Alive 2012, Kim Jong-un, please visit our friends at the People’s Daily in China, a proud Communist subsidiary of The Onion, Inc.
“Exemplary reportage, comrades,” it said.
Two months ago, Iran’s Fars news agency ran an Onion story saying most rural white Americans would rather vote for Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than for Barack Obama.
