North Korea: Children's Festival & Kim Jong-Il’s Dogs

If there’s one thing I absolutely love about Japanese news, it’s the seemingly huge amount of coverage they give to news about North Korea. They always seem to dig up interesting stories from their crazy neighbor, especially weird stories. A great example of this are the following clips from a report that aired yesterday:

The first video clip is from the June 1st Children’s Day festivities in North Korea. Children sang songs, played musical instruments, and played games that involved shooting slingshots at evil Americans (why is there a cameraman standing dangerously close to the target?):

Next we are shown one of the most popular animals at a North Korean Zoo. Are they elephants, lions, or perhaps some pandas? Actually, it’s poodles. The Japanese journalists were a bit confused because these poodles didn’t look anything like poodles to them, but an expert tells them that the animals are indeed poodles. The North Korean zoo neglected to trim their hair, so the poodles looks shaggy and somewhat dirty (a health risk to the animals):

Why would poodles be popular at a zoo? Apparently a great many North Koreans have trouble feeding themselves, so being able to feed a pet dog is something very few can do there. One of the few who can enjoy such a luxury is Dear Leader Kim Jong-Il. The TV program summons Kim Jong-Il’s former chef, who now resides in Japan, to tell them about the Dear Leader’s pets. According to chef Fujimoto, Kim has several Shih Tzus, which are ever-present under the table at private meals:

The Dear Leader’s dogs are given only the finest quality foods, which are prepared by the same chefs who make his meals. His dogs are provided better food than most of North Korea’s population, and probably eat better than you or I do!