Apple has a large number of high-profile fans, but there are always bound to be one or two less desirable (but equally famous) ones who slip through the cracks.
One of these is North Korea’s super villain dictator Kim Jong-un, who apparently is quite the Apple fan — as evidenced by a recent photo posted on Twitter by Reuters’ Korean correspondent and author of North Korea Confidential James Pearson, showing Jong-un looking deliriously happy about his Apple MacBook Pro.
Photo: James Pearson
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen some evidence of North Korea’s surprising level of Apple fandom.
Red Star OS, the state-created operating system, bears more than a passing resemblance to OS X, while Kim Jong-un definitely shows some of that reality distortion and love of end-to-end control that Steve Jobs was so famous for!
Hey, it’s not every day we get a look at the computer which might one day trigger nuclear armageddon!
Then again, if comedy movie The Interview has it right, he’s probably just using it to listen to Katy Perry on Apple Music.
Source: Twitter
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
23 responses to “Kim Jong-Un sure looks happy with his MacBook Pro”
It’s unlikely he’d use the MacBook Pro to start a war. I’m pretty sure they’d use a secured, direct phone line for something like that.
it was obviously a joke there big guy, take it down a notch…
Everyone knows that Nuclear Armageddon is an .exe app for Windows only and has yet to be ported to the Mac.
Bootcamp running windows on a mac. Or using the mac to trigger it running on a Windows computer.
He might think twice about attacking China or the US since he needs support and new models of the MBPR, so he doesn’t want to prevent himself from getting support and new product. :-)
If an old PB mac can down an alien invasion …
Why is the MB Pro connected to that phone base with a curly cord?
Lol. It’s not man. That’s just the phone cord.
Just one more reason not to buy overpriced apple garbage. Build your own computers people.
Think you are on the wrong site, mate.
Really? How so? Because I can build a machine that can eat any mac for breakfast for half the price and install any OS on it and thus run nearly any piece of software ever made? How about your Mac? What do they run now? 5% of the world’s software.
Because this article is about happy Kim and his macbook pro, not a tech website to spew your PC fanboyism. Also, you are recommending that people build their own computer, which is about a desktop and here we are on a article about a laptop. This is how much your fanboyism blinded you, that you write highly irrelevant crap
Laptops are 100% out dated. Now that we have readily available tablets and smart phones there is zero reason to have a laptop today. Build your computer, put whatever OS you like on it and use it for high powered operations (gaming, editing ect) and your phone/tablet for telling people how horrible your life is because Starbucks ran out of low fat vegan milk substitute for your latte.
Calm down buddy. Just stop smoking whatever you are on.
Macs can run any OS for a while now. I started in 2008.
Yeah Windows and Linux. Does that list all the OSes you can think of?
You might build anything for even less than half the price of a Mac, and what? It won’t be as compact as Mac hardware, nor as robust as Mac software. And yeah you will keep subscribing to antivirus and all.
So, coming back to your outdated 1st comment. You are wrong.
Have a good day.
Calm down buddy. Just stop smoking whatever you are on.
Macs can run any OS for a while now. I started in 2008.
Yeah Windows and Linux. Does that list all the OSes you can think of?
You might build anything for even less than half the price of a Mac, and what? It won’t be as compact as Mac hardware, nor as robust as Mac software. And yeah you will keep subscribing to antivirus and all.
So, coming back to your outdated comment. You are wrong.
Have a good day.
Wait….people still use Antivirus? Why? In this era of storage drives for documents and SSD’s for system drives, just make a bootable usb with your drivers pre loaded and if you get a virus you just reload your os. Takes less than 10 minuets. Why waste your time with anti virus protection?
I haven’t gotten a virus that attacks OS X that’s done any damage, that usually for Windows. Why have to waste time reloading your OS every time you get a virus? That sounds like a lot of extra work.
I just dont get viruses…..I use my machine for all it should be used for. Emails, news and gaming.
He’s just a bored DIY PC user that brags about buying excess inventory on the cheap so he feels superior. He’ll go away, eventually. They always do.
Do you enjoy Apple’s marketing that basically tells you “you’re an idiot, so we stripped away lots of features and made “baby’s first pc” for you.”
If a company marketed to me that way I wouldnt give them my money.
God, using market share numbers to substantiate what OS you use?
Actually with OS X and iOS, it’s more like around 20 to 25% globally. Just OS X? That’s about 7%, but it’s steadily growing as PC sales are slowing down and most of the PC mfg can’t make any profit. Acer is one foot closer to going out of business. Ever see their financials?
Half price? You must be buying stolen parts and let’s see your DYI laptop. Kinda hard to build your own laptop.
Seriously, DIY isn’t for the majority of the population, it’s for geeks with nothing better to do than to have their computer and fixing it as their hobby. Some of us would rather use it than spending time repairing, assembling a no name computer that has no resale value, which negates any savings you THINK you have.
See my post above. Laptops are 100% outdated. Tablets and smartphones have replaced them. Desktops are what I build.
Building a computer is insanely easy. They have made it idiot proof. The 8 pin goes in the 8 pin the 24 pin goes in the 24 pin the video card goes in the video card slot and the ram goes in the ram slots.
There is nothing to it. Ive literally watched a 7 year old put together a machine and all I did was provide guidance.
He proceeded to load OSX on it……because hes not particularly bright, but thats ok. He will learn shortly.
Warmongering-ass garbage article.