The founder and first leader of North Korea, Kim Il-sung, did not have the supernatural powers that were attributed to him by certain popular myths, the Daily Star reports.
According to the newspaper, one urban legend claimed that Kim employed a technique called "chukjibeop" or "folding space", which allowed him to teleport and which he used while waging guerrilla warfare against Japanese troops on the Korean Peninsula.
However, official DPRK newspaper Rodong Shinmun has now reportedly stated that "people can't disappear and reappear by folding space", and that Kim himself attributed his victory to popular support rather than to magic.
Quite a few social media users appeared rather amused by this reveal, joking about the fact that it had to be reported in the first place.
Oh well I'm glad they cleared that up.
— Alexandra Labenz (@AlexandraLabenz) May 27, 2020
#f2b You mean Kim Il Sung COULDN’T teleport through spacetime?! pic.twitter.com/bOR4pFcaY6
— Nick Houston (@Nick85Houston) May 28, 2020
Really? What else isnt real?
— سكولز السوداءCFA (@tonimugo) May 27, 2020
But he could alter the sun’ rays right?
— Cornbeef (@cornbeefuk) May 27, 2020
Oh FFS! I always thought this was true? What next? Santa isn't real?! Double FFS with capital F's!
— Tom (@TomMancM12) May 27, 2020
South Korea's Unification Ministry also announced that it was apparently "the first known occasion of a Kim family myth being officially debunked in this way", as the Daily Star put it.
"We need to pay attention to the current leader’s denial of the mythification of his predecessors," one ministry official said.
