Kim Jong-un has reportedly fired his photographer for imposing on his “supreme dignity”. The dictator claims the public’s view of him was blocked for three seconds while the photographer scrambled to get a better spot from which to take his picture.
Identified only by his surname Ri, the photographer was tasked with documenting Jong-un during the elections. According to Pyongyang sources, he was guilty of “adjusting the angle so that the camera’s flash covered the Dear and Respected Supreme Leader Comrade’s neck”.
In taking the ill-fated position, Ri — who just last month documented the summit with Donald Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam — is also accused of violating rules which ban any photography within two meters of the Jong-un, and prohibit pictures or video from being taken directly in front of him.
The dictator had arrived to cast his election vote, stopping to wave at the crowd, at which point Ri stepped in front of him. A news camera caught the moment on video.
Since the incident, the photographer was fired and removed from the Workers’ Party of Korea – essentially making him a second-class citizen. Sources describe Ri’s actions as an “anti-Party act of damaging the Supreme Dignity of our Party”, and that he had been fired almost instantly.