North Korea, Nuclear Weapons And Magical Horses

'Magical' Horse

Amid all the sabre-rattling from the 30-year old megalomaniac in Pyongyang, it's instructive to remember how warped a society North Korea really is. Exposed to only party propaganda 24 hours a day, its citizens live in a hazy netherworld of fantasy. As the 101st anniversary of their founder's birth approaches on Monday, fantastic tales of irrationality are again emerging. Here's our favorite: Apparently, Kim Il Sung was literally on fire during a battle, when his 'magical white horse'—Lassie-like—dumped him in the snow where he rolled out the flames. But let's go to the original text from the official news agency—it's so much more colorful:

"It was only when the horse began to run with the wind that he discovered the flames on his coat. He had no time to pull it off. At this critical moment, the horse slowed down in front of a snow-covered depression and then slid into it sideways, with its forelegs folded in. The President stumbled into the snow, and the fire on his coat was put out as he rolled over in it. Other stories say that the white horse's foreleg tapped on the fallen tree and the sound woke the President up and that he was surprised to see tears trickling from the horse's eyes as it should have a premonition of parting to be used as draught horse for the people in the guerrilla zone."

Ah, tearfully sentimental magical white horses. And this lunatic's grandson has nukes?