North Korean flag with red star in white circle on red background with blue stripes

North Korea

2004culture / political humoractive

Published September 10, 2026

North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, became a prolific source of internet humor as international tensions rose in the 2010s. The totalitarian state's eccentric leadership, nuclear threats, and extreme isolation spawned numerous meme formats including Hungry Kim Jong-Un, the binoculars photoshop series, and the r/Pyongyang subreddit's satirical ban messages. From the 2004 Team America portrayal to the 2016 revelation that the country had only 28 public websites, North Korea transformed from geopolitical threat to recurring punchline across social media platforms.

internet memes

Overview

North Korea memes typically exploit the contrast between the regime's grandiose self-presentation and its widely perceived absurdity. Formats range from image macros depicting Kim Jong-Un as perpetually hungry to elaborate photoshop battles placing the dictator in ridiculous scenarios. The humor often relies on the regime's theatrical propaganda footage, which provides endless source material for remixing3.

A defining characteristic of North Korea memes is their satirical edge. The r/Pyongyang subreddit parodies the DPRK's information control through its notorious ban policy, spawning the running joke where Redditors reply to North Korea criticism with "you have been banned from r/Pyongyang"1. Similarly, Trump's "Rocket Man" nickname for Kim Jong-Un in 2017 generated thousands of photoshops and Elton John references across Twitter2. The memes treat nuclear brinkmanship as comedy fodder.

The format extends beyond just the Kim family. The 2016 accidental leak revealing North Korea had only 28 public websites became instant viral material, with Reddit users rushing to explore obscure .kp domains before they crashed from traffic spikes4. This incident showed how even infrastructure details could become meme-worthy when filtered through the lens of North Korean absurdism.

Origin & Background

Platform
Multiple (4chan, Reddit, Twitter)
Date
2004

North Korea's emergence as an internet meme subject traces back to the 2004 film "Team America: World Police" by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone5. The puppet comedy featured Kim Jong-Il as its villain, complete with the satirical song "I'm So Ronery" mocking his supposed accent. When Kim Jong-Il died on December 19, 2011, "Team America" immediately trended on Twitter as users flooded the platform with references to the film6.

The torch passed to Kim Jong-Un almost immediately. On December 19th, 2011, Redditor GunnieGraves submitted a post titled "Kim Jong Un looks….hungry" featuring the new leader pointing at an object with the caption "Ok so…can I eat this?" The post hit the front page of r/funny and received over 7,200 upvotes3. By January 2012, Funny or Die published a compilation of Hungry Kim Jong-Un examples, and by April 2012, the Quickmeme page had over 1,753 user submissions3. The r/Pyongyang subreddit was created on December 21st, 2011, just two days after Kim Jong-Il's death1.

How It Spread

North Korea memes spread primarily through Reddit, Twitter, and 4chan throughout the 2010s. The first major coordinated campaign came in June 2010 when 4chan's /b/ board vote-brigaded a fan poll to send Justin Bieber to North Korea. Within 48 hours, North Korea jumped from 24th place to first, with mainstream outlets like BBC News covering the stunt as a legitimate diplomatic concern7.

The 2013 period marked peak North Korean meme production. On March 8th, 2013, footage of Kim Jong-Un peering through binoculars at a military facility went viral, spawning a series of combined GIFs showing him viewing absurd scenes3. On March 12th, a GIF of Kim watching a failed cartoon missile launch was uploaded to Memecenter, and on March 31st, Redditor Deadr4t submitted an edited version to r/funny3. That same year, the hacker group Anonymous launched Operation North Korea, breaching DPRK websites and social media profiles8.

The September 2016 DNS leak brought another wave of attention. Security engineer Matt Bryant discovered that one of North Korea's nameservers had been misconfigured, revealing the country's entire public internet consisted of just 28 websites4. GitHub user posted the data, Reddit's technology community picked it up on September 21st, and the traffic spike from curious visitors crashed most of the sites4. The April 2018 inter-Korean summit generated fresh meme content when photos of Kim and Moon Jae-in holding hands spawned Reddit posts like "When bae takes you for a walk," which garnered over 5,400 upvotes at 98% approval within 24 hours9.

Timeline

2004

Team America: World Police released, featuring Kim Jong-Il as the villain and introducing "I'm So Ronery" to internet culture

2010-06-29

4chan's /b/ board begins vote-brigading campaign to send Justin Bieber to North Korea for his world tour

2012-01-05

Funny or Die publishes Hungry Kim Jong-Un compilation

2015-03-04

Bent-over photo submitted to r/photoshopbattles, triggering viral remixes

2017-09-17

Trump tweets "Rocket Man" nickname for Kim Jong-Un, sparking Elton John mashups

2018-04-27

Kim-Moon summit photos spawn Reddit memes including "When bae takes you for a walk"

How to Use This Meme

North Korea memes work across several established formats. For Hungry Kim Jong-Un, find a photo of the leader examining something and add a caption suggesting he wants to eat it. For binoculars memes, take the 2013 footage of Kim looking through binoculars and edit what he's supposedly viewing. The r/Pyongyang joke works as a reply to anyone criticizing North Korea with "you have been banned from r/Pyongyang" or praising them with "you have been made a moderator of r/Pyongyang." For photoshop battles, the bent-over inspection photo from 2013 works as a versatile template for placing Kim in absurd situations.

Frequently Asked Questions