Following Kim Jong Il’s death, the world faces uncertainty over North Korea’s leadership transition. But it seems that the blogosphere’s meme transition has gone swiftly and smoothly.
Shortly after the announcement that the North Korean leader has died, a new Tumblr blog was created, showing photos of Kim Jong Il’s third son and successor Kim Jong Un Looking at Things.
It is not a replacement of the popular Kim Jong Il Looking at Things, since the original blog isn’t going away. Its Lisbon-based creator João Rocha said on the site that he will continue to post photos of the leader posthumously, at least until he runs out of images of Kim doing what he does best.
The spinoff blog featuring Kim Jong Un is a copycat site started by someone else. It is fashioned to look nearly identical to the original, save for the lack of ads — so far.
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But the images of the junior Kim pale in comparison.
The photos on the old site quite consistently show an expressionless Kim Jong Il in his signature sunglasses inspecting products, food and machinery. In many of the photos posted on the new site, Kim Jong Un is not really looking at specific objects as his father does in the original blog. Though NewsFeed thinks the successor has time yet to perfect the downward gaze.
Rochas told the Wall Street Journal he thinks imitation blogs focusing on Kim Jong Un won’t work as well. “The funny part [about the original blog] was in seeing someone that’s constantly portrayed as evil, doing something as inoffensive as looking at things,” he said. “Kim Jong Un doesn’t have that ruthlessness, that je ne sais quoi.” NewsFeed isn’t sure how a lack of ruthlessness could be considered a drawback, but there you have it.