North Korea has finally responded to persistent rumors that leader Kim Jong-un had plastic surgery to look like his revered grandfather, issuing an angry denial criticizing “sordid” media reports.
Speculation that Kim’s resemblance to the country’s founding leader, Kim Il-sung, is not 100 percent natural has been around for some time, though with little or no supporting evidence.
The rumors have been partly fed by the undeniable fact that Kim Jong-un has sought to evoke memories of his grandfather in numerous ways, through his dress, haircut, gestures and public appearances. There is also a clear physical resemblance, but Pyongyang’s patience with reports of plastic surgery appears to have run out.
Photo: Reuters
照片：路透
“The false report ... released by enemies is a hideous criminal act which the party, state, army and people can never tolerate,” the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a commentary on Jan. 23.
Insisting that the very idea of Kim undergoing plastic surgery was “unimaginable,” KCNA flatly rejected what it described as “sordid hackwork by rubbish media.”
(AFP)
傳聞北韓領導人為了讓自己更像他尊敬的祖父，動過整形手術，北韓終於憤怒地否認，批評媒體報導「卑鄙」。
傳聞金正恩與北韓建國領導人金日成神似的外貌，並非百分百渾然天成，這段傳聞已有一段時日，儘管證據很少或根本付之闕如。
但金正恩以服裝、髮型、手勢等不同方式，試圖要讓民眾想起他的祖父，卻是不爭的事實，且更助長傳聞。而且，兩人外貌的確明顯相似。不過，平壤當局容忍整形報導的耐性似已消磨殆盡。
北韓官方中央通信社一月二十三日在評論中表示：「敵人公布的不實報導是醜惡的犯罪行為，北韓黨政軍及人民絕對無法容忍。」
北韓中央通信社堅稱，金正恩接受整形手術的想法「難以想像」，對其所謂「垃圾媒體的卑鄙報導」斷然駁斥。
（法新社／翻譯：陳維真）
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