Maybe it’s that we’ve all been in quarantine for too long and some people have nothing better to do, or maybe it’s that she would be the world’s first known female dictator. More likely, it’s that the internet is notorious for sexualizing everything and anything possible. There’s no direct explanation for why we’re here, but unfortunately, we’re here: Twitter is horny for Kim Yo-jong.
Fancams are the heart of stan culture, and in the weeks since conflicting reports about North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un’s health cast doubts on whether Kim is alive, Twitter users have been making fancams and fan art for his successor and younger sister, Kim Yo-jong.
Last week, intelligence monitoring suggested that the dictator was in poor health after a cardiovascular procedure. CNN reported that he was in “grave danger.” He missed the Apr. 15 parade celebrating his grandfather’s birthday. Speculation of his death escalated after a Japanese magazine reported that the dictator was in a “vegetative” state following the surgery. On Sunday, CNN reported that Korean officials stated Kim is “alive and well.”
“Kim Jong-un is alive and well,” Moon Chung-in told CNN. He’s the top foreign policy advisor to South Korean president Moon Jae-in. “He has been staying in the Wonsan area since April 13. No suspicious movements have so far been detected.”
The country’s extremely secretive government operations and history of controlling the public image of its dictators, though, only fueled rumors about Kim’s death.
Few details are publicly known about his sister, Yo-jong, who is believed to be in her early thirties. But her rise among the ranks of North Korea’s governmental departments suggest that she has been groomed to rule the country until Kim Jong-un’s son, who is about 10, is old enough to take power.
Robert Collins, an expert who’s spent more than 40 years analyzing North Korea’s shadowy government operations, told the Daily Beast that Kim Yo-jong “makes the decisions on what’s important enough for big brother Kim Jong-un’s scrutiny.”
And in light of speculation surrounding her brother’s health, Kim Yo-jong is in the spotlight.
An image of Kim Yo-jong running with bread in her mouth was compared to popular anime motifs.
Which an artist already recreated.
Twitter users are also making fancams for Kim Yo-jong. Fancams are short, often fan-shot clips of K-pop artists performing on stage. Fans edit them with different effects and transitions, and then reply to posts and arguments they disagree with using the montage of the idol performing. Fancams have been used to not only show support for popular stars, but to also derail posts, shut down criticism, and harass other Twitter users.
Using the few photographs and videos of Kim Yo-jong from her rare public appearances, Twitter users added music and other effects to make fancams of the dictator’s potential successor.
K-POP group’s ‘DPRK’ lead singer Kim Yo-Jong made her solo debut yesterday! Since then she gained 280B streams on Spotify and 300B more on Apple Music making her the only artist in history to do so! Kim thanks her fans for streaming and she assures them there is more to come! pic.twitter.com/ZDjIAdteFZ
— bamb/my sawayama era (@oligozaharid) April 26, 2020
Twitter users also drew comparisons between Kim Yo-jong and Azula, the fiery, unstable villain from Avatar: The Last Airbender. In the show, Azula takes her brother’s place in succession and helps her father in his attempt to colonize other kingdoms.
Kim Yo-jong’s gender doesn’t necessarily point to her being less of a tyrant than her brother. She’s a high-ranking member of North Korea’s propaganda department, and in a statement after Seoul protested against the North’s live-fire military exercise, compared South Korea to a “frightened dog barking.”
She described the Blue House, South Korea’s presidential building, as “a burnt child dreading fire,” and stated that the “incoherent assertion” and condemnation “only magnify our distrust, hatred, and scorn for the South side as a whole.”
Kim Yo-jong did attend the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, where she met both president Moon Jae-in and U.S. vice president Mike Pence.
Unfortunately horny Twitter truly knows no bounds, and as the condition of Kim Jong-un’s health remains unclear, simping for his sister is bound to continue. Ironic or not, we’re in this for the long haul.