I see that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has passed away, going to that Worker’s Paradise in the Sky. Although I like living in Japan quite a lot, one of the downsides would definitely be having to live next to North Korea. When he wasn’t doing underground nuclear testing and making highly unpleasant threats about engulfing the Korean Peninsula in fire, North Korea was “launching peaceful satellites” aka shooting taepodong missiles over Japan as a threat. (If one tried to reach Tokyo but ran out of fuel, it would land right on top of J-List, ouch.) In addition to kidnapping 17 Japanese citizens to serve as language teachers for spies, Kim Jong-il has engaged in state-sponsored smuggling of cocaine into Japan (this came to light when the Japanese sank a North Korean ship invading its waters), and prints high-quality counterfeit yen notes, making him the Count Cagliostro of Asia. But as a supervillain, at least Kim Jong-il was entertaining. When Japanese illusionist Princess Tenko visited North Korea, he became obsessed with her, reportedly calling her (or having underlings call her) every day at 2:16 pm, February 16th being his birthday.
How many world leaders could inspire awesome fanart like this? (Other than Putin.)
