Kim Jong-un bans Christmas, forces people to worship his grandma
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
As if things weren’t already complicated enough in North Korea, its Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un is urging his country’s Christians to forget Jesus and instead commemorate his deceased grandmother.
The dictator’s grandmother Kim Jong-suk was incidentally born on Christmas eve and is considered in the communist state as “the Sacred Mother of the Revolution” due to her contributions as anti-Japanese guerrilla and activist.
She was the wife of North Korea’s first dictator, Kim Il Sung, and former leader Kim Jong Il’s mother, states The New York Post.
Instead of the usual Christmas-related festivities, North Koreans celebrated the holidays by visiting Jong-suk’s tomb, who died under mysterious circumstances in 1949.
Jong-un’s hatred of anything displaying religion and faith has been well-documented in the past, as evidenced by his meltdown in 2014, after news that South Korea planned to erect a huge Christmas tree along the border.
Article continues after this advertisementThe tree, however, was never put up amid threats of an all-out-war from the Supreme Leader.
Article continues after this advertisementDespite Jong-un’s displeasure towards nativity ornaments, a few Christmas trees can be found in the country’s capital of Pyongyang—although completely devoid of religious symbols.
The city used to have the largest Catholic community in the country, up until authorities clamped down on all Christian activities in the early 1950s.
Earlier this week, the tyrant also reportedly gave his soldiers diarrhea after feeding them with defective food. Khristian Ibarrola/jdb/rga
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