A Role for Caricature in Toppling the Kim Regime?

The Korea bloggers over at The Marmot's Hole have an open thread this weekend on the question of how to deal with the sinking of the Cheonan if -- as looks to be the case -- the North Korean government turns out to be responsible:

How about this week's open forum devoted to brainstorming creative and mostly non-military ways to make North Korea pay for this [i.e., the Cheonan]?

The discussion is not always serious, and not even always on topic, but the issue is something to think about, and I added my own, half-serious suggestion:

Now as for the main point of this open thread, namely, how to destabilize the North, perhaps my son En-Uk’s Kim Jong-il series would be of some effect:

Kim Jong-il

Kim Jong-il Smell

Kim Jong-ugly

Kim Jong-il Long Leg

Kim Jong-il On Fire

Kim Jong-il Spikey Hair

I have no idea why my ten-year-old son is on such a Kim Jong-il kick, but the caricatures are definitely topical — and could help do something to topple the Kim Family Regime if sent northward with the balloons.

Ridicule can work wonders if the king has no clothes . . .

Interestingly, En-Uk mentioned his intention to create a comic strip about Kim Jong-il! I’ll have to see that to believe it, though . . .

Let's look at En-Uk's caricatures, for I left one out in the links above, and he's since added another. The masterpiece is his first one, titled merely Kim Jong-il:


With this and every caricature, En-Uk includes an explanatory message:

This drawing is called "Kim Jong-il." Kim Jong-il made his hair go up so he would look like he is tall. He is the North Korean dictator. He is a bad man. I don't like him. I made a song. It goes, "With the Jong-il, the mighty Jong-il, the lion seeks to fight . . ." It was funny. Bye.

En-Uk's second caricature, Kim Jong-il Smell, is still serious, I think, but moves into explicit ridicule in its depiction of the dictator, not merely in the message:


Note the amusing wordplay in En-Uk's explanatory message:

This drawing is called "Kim Jong-il Smell." I made this drawing because I love making fun of Kim Junk-ill. Bye.

Next is the caricature that I inadvertently left out in the links above, Kim Jung-il Crazy:


About this wildly energetic caricature, En-Uk again refers to "Kim Junk-ill" in saying:

This drawing is called "Kim Jung-il crazy." I made this drawing because Kim Junk-ill is really crazy. Bye.

He certainly looks like a wild-and-crazy guy on a Saturday Night Live kick! Next comes a caricature titled Kim Jong-ugly, which definitely resembles the dictator after one of those wild-and-crazy, late-night Saturday night cognac parties on a Sunday morning coming down:


En-Uk offers an ironic comment:

This drawing is called "Kim Jong-ugly." I made this drawing because Kim Jong-il is really ugly, but still the drawing of Kim Jong-il is better looking than the real Kim Jong-il. Bye.

The real Kim Jong-il is so much worse than Dorian Gray that even his image can't keep the pace! En-Uk's next image of Kim Jong-il -- Kim Jong-il Long Leg -- enters the realm of the surreal:


Of this one, En-Uk tells us:

This drawing is called "Kim Jong-il Long Leg," but it is too long for his short body, and it is not really long -- he just stretched it. Bye.

The Great Dictator was apparently attempting to enhance his height but stopped halfway when the coffers went empty, as happened with the Ryugyong Hotel. Anyway . . . next comes Kim Jong-il On Fire:


En-Uk offers not only a comment, but even a song to go with the fiery dance:

This drawing is called "Kim Jong-il On Fire." I made this drawing because Kim Jong-il's hair is really on fire. Oh, and I made a poem. It is:

Kim Jong-il On Fire

Kim Jong-il's on fire.
Some say he touched a wire.
He says his house exploded,
but they say it was loaded.

Was it fun? Please write a comment, and let me know. Bye.

In this song, En-Uk might have expressed the secret longing of many North Koreans these days, for according to reports since the Great Currency Fiasco, much of the populace openly hates the little man. At any rate, En-Uk doesn't let up on the man, as shown in this next caricature, Kim Jong-il Spikey Hair:


Here, Kim Jong-il reminds me of some rock star gyrating his entire body so rapidly that his hair streams out long and straight from the centrifugal force . . . though with a few grey streaks, he'd resemble the Bride of Frankenstein. Whatever the intent, En-Uk's comment informs us that one doesn't want to get too close to the dictator:

This drawing is called "Kim Jong-il Spikey Hair." I made this drawing because it is dangerous to get close to his hair. Bye.

An excellent insight. The most dangerous place to be in such a regime is too close to the leader. Last in this series is En-Uk's most recent caricature, one in which the king truly has no clothes, Kim Jong-il Fat:


Of this latest image, En-Uk tells us:

This drawing is called "Kim Jong-il Fat." I made this drawing because Kim Jong-il is very really fat in the belly, like a baby. Bye.

I rather like the syntactic oddity, "very really fat," for it requires the reader to focus on Kim Jong-il's condition as one of the few fat individuals among all of the hungry people in the starving nation of North Korea.

As I suggested above in my comment from The Marmot's Hole, thousands of images like these sent by balloons into North Korea could do their small part in effecting regime change.