Mail Bag

David writes:

Your cartoon appearing in this week's Village Voice states that "North Korea executed nine people today for not wearing their Kim Il Sung lapel pins."

Aside from the issue of this cartoon not being particularly clever or humorous (flag pin genital piercings? please...), you might like to know that the name of the current dictator of North Korea is Kim Jong Il. Kim Il Sung died 14 years ago, so it wouldn't make much sense that people in North Korea would be punished for not wearing a lapel pin depicting a long-dead dictator, would it?

A 10-second Google search might have saved you some embarrassment.

David could use a 10-second Google search himself. You know, to save him some embarrassment. The New York Times reports:

In February, the New York Philharmonic performed in North Korea, a country where no official of any stature is seen without a lapel pin bearing the image of Great Leader Eternal President Kim Il-sung, long dead though he is.
(...)

In North Korea, the Eternal President pin is a symptom of a national cult of personality, just as Mao pins once were in China; hammer and sickle pins were sported by many officials in the old Soviet Union, where an ideology became a political monoculture.

David absolutely got me on the claim that nine people were executed for it "today." Nine people were not executed on the 23rd of April. I totally just made that number up! When I do further reporting on international flag pin issues in my comic, I'll be sure to double check my sources.