Memes of Kim Jong Un have flooded social media as the West Asia conflict enters its second week, portraying the nuclear-armed North Korean leader as a melancholic spectator, supposedly “suffering from peace” while the world edges closer to wider war.
“When you have the best toys, but nobody invites you to play,” a popular caption attached to various photos of a pensive Kim, contemplating his loneliness.
For a dictator whose entire brand rests on missile posturing, Kim's invisibility during the Iran crisis strikes social media users as peak geopolitical irony, especially since the war's impact is spreading to new terrains.
A popular version of a meme is an image of a contemplative Kim staring into space, with the caption, “ He is still waiting for just one missile, to land in North Korea by mistake, so he can uninstall the world.”
In less than a week, sad Kim memes have garnered as much as 500 or 600 thousand likes on Instagram or X, with millions of views.
Internet satirists shifting their attention to Kim during a time of escalating global anxiety offers social media users a chance of laughing through the pain.
It is funny because it trivialises brinkmanship by using petty social media emotions. The politics of invisibility underscoring the menacing promise of an authority figure capable of mass destruction lands as outrageous.
‘Someone let this cutie in,’ wrote an Instagram user, infantilising the North Korean leader. Israel and the US launched Operation Epic Fury and Operation Roaring Lions on Iran on February 28. Within two days the majority of the Middle East and West Asia got dragged into the war through a complex web of retaliatory strikes.
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that the attack was to deter Tehran from any possible nuclear program.
The growing fear of a large-scale war has households across the world refreshing their social media feeds for updates. In a desolate corner of the world, one can imagine Kim too is anxiously refreshing his war feed, but for a different reason; he is waiting for his invite.
As one comment on a meme showing a soldier telling Kim reads, “Sir, we have no reason for joining this war,” to which Kim replied, “find one.”