The first stop on Kim Jong Il’s latest, unexpected tour of China was Yuwen Middle School in Jilin. Kim Jong Il is said to have had stayed at the school, which is where Kim Il Sung studied for around two years starting in 1927, for about 20 minutes.
As news of Kim Jong Il’s visit spread, an online community of the school’s students hosted by Baidu, a Chinese search engine, threw up some entertaining comments.
“I heard Kim Jong Il visited today already. Did anyone see him?” one student asked. No one replied that the reclusive tyrant had been seen, but one happy student did reply, “Thanks to Kim Jong Il, we had a day off!”
The day before Kim’s visit, another short piece even alluded to his impending arrival. In retrospect the evidence is compelling, with one student describing the North Korean leader and his son in less than respectful terms; dateline 9:42PM on the 25th, “Does everyone know that Big Fatty’s bringing Small Fatty today?’”
Meanwhile, on the morning of the 26th, some joke guidelines for school teachers were posted which said “Since the sun of the 21st Century, General Kim Jong Il is visiting, students must not throw things out of the windows.”
One student, in reply to the post, added pithily, “If we leave stuff outside, they’ll take it all, so obviously we must clean up.”
Meanwhile, after the visit one student wrote, “General Kim Jong Il, we love you for giving us a vacation!”
With nobody claiming to have directly witnessed Kim Jong Il’s visit, only questions lingered in the online ether such as, “Did anyone see him?’ and “Does he really look the same as he does on TV…?”
