After a Chinese netizen on Sina Weibo (China’s equivalent to Twitter) posted a photo of heightened activity at the North Korean embassy in Beijing, a literal game of Chinese whispers turned into a rapidly spreading rumor that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un himself had been assassinated. The story was then picked up and re-tweeted on Twitter under a fake BBC account, furthering the rumor overseas. In what later turned out to be nothing more than a birthday party, the story made its way on to front pages in both Korea and abroad, leading to much amusement amongst Korean netizens.
From Chosun:
Rumor had it that Kim Jeong-Un, the Vice Chairman of the National Defense Commission of North Korea, passed away. SNS gave wings to the rumor to spread across China, the United States and Europe, creating an instant uproar.
According to Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, Kim was said to have been assassinated during his visit to the North Korean embassy in Beijing around 2:45 AM on the 10th of February. It was reported that the assassin who sneaked into the embassy shot the North Korean leader to death, and then was killed by the bodyguards. With photographs of numerous cars flocking to the embassy uploaded in addition [to the post], the rumor spread rapidly like a credible piece of news.
The rumor of Kim’s death on Weibo traveled to Europe and the US, via fabricated Twitter accounts such as BBCLiveNews, causing a great sensation.
However, the rumor was soon discovered to be unfounded and the BBCLiveNews account was closed after it became known that it was unrelated with the official BBC.
‘An unusually large crowd of cars would have swarmed the North Korean embassy in Beijing in celebration of Kim Jong-Il’s 70th birthday on the coming 16th. ‘It would make a big issue if Kim Jong-un did in fact pay a visit to China at this stage, so it is impossible for him to enter North Korean embassy in secret. ‘Knowing that is enough to determine whether this rumor has any truth in it,’ experts said.
Comments from Chosun:
이현 (lh9235):
Too bad it is just a rumor.
정하원 (orangejhw):
I can just picture the people in the Progressive Hope force sighing with great relief at the safety of Commander Kim Jong-un.
임승완 (seungwan3):
Think twice, you servants of North Korea. Had Kim Jong-un lived just like his grandpa and papa, he would most definitely have been killed. Give him good advice – that is the only thing that would benefit him. You North Korean servants, educated with the ideologies of those filthy ones, wake up and actually do something for your country again.
오준일 (swdc):
It’s a heart-warming article……^^
안광수 (nae79nae79):
I hope he dies as soon as possible……
임욱 (myulgong):
Of course this would be good, but I wish a meteor would fall and destroy the tomb of Karl Marx instead. It’s all because of that guy Karl Marx.
김용진 (yongjkim9):
The United Democratic Party would have been startled…… What else would they have used to carry out the presidential election with!? Had the young’un passed away…… they wouldn’t be able to do anything……
김종실 (fltflt):
There is still no certainty whether that dog Jong-un is dead or not. Let’s hope the dog’s dead. If the Northern dog and the Southern followers of North Korea all died altogether, there would be no traitors in the Republic of Korea and there would be freedom and peace for everyone.
