After Kim Jong-Un surprise dropped in on China on a mystery train on Wednesday — his first time leaving his own country since 2011 — the Chinese government took special precautions by banning all mentions by name, terms, or nicknames referring to the North Korean leader on the internet and social media.
China had previously temporarily censored derogatory terms “Kim the Fat,” “Kim Fat III,” and “Fatty Fatty” at the request of Pyongyang in 2016, so to get around the ban users had to be more creative. “The obese patient” and “fatty on the train” were among nicknames being circulated for Jong-Un, as well as more diplomatic terms like “the visitor from the northeast” and “the sibling next door.”
On Tuesday, four of the top 10 blocked terms on the microblogging site Weibo were “Kim Jong Un,” “Fatty the Third,” “North Korea,” and “Fatty Kim the Third,” according to FreeWeibo, a site that tracks censorship on the platform. (The “third” refers to the fact that Kim’s father and grandfather, also surnamed Kim, were also North Korean supreme leaders.)
Well, whatever they called him, it seems as though the visit was a success. After Jong-Un’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, North Korea has reportedly pledged to a commitment of denuclearisation.
The news comes ahead of Jong-Un’s forthcoming meeting later this spring with United States President Donald Trump.
(Via Business Insider, Reuters)