The face that launched a thousand N.Korean tirades (Propaganda Anchor Lee Chun-hee)

Reuters ^ | 11/18/09 | Jon Herskovitz and Christine Kim

[TigerLikesRooster]

The face that launched a thousand N.Korean tirades

Wed Nov 18, 2009 12:42am EST

By Jon Herskovitz and Christine Kim

SEOUL, Nov 18 (Reuters) - The one certainty in unpredictable North Korea is that if the state detonates a nuclear device or leader Kim Jong-il visits a duck farm, Ri Chun-hee will be on TV boasting about the amazing accomplishment.

Ri is the forceful grandmother speaking with the authority of the state as the main newscaster for North Korea's only TV channel. Her face is one of the few broadcast abroad and her stentorian reports thunder across airwaves from the land where leader Kim rarely speaks.

Ri, born in 1943, is an actress turned newscaster who first took to the air in 1971 when the North's state TV channel was taking off.

Slightly plump, with permed black hair, she has become an institution whose bombastic delivery decries the miseries inflicted upon the state by a hostile world while celebrating its military triumphs.

"With her rusty voice that is powerful and appealing, what could the 65-year-old Ri have gone through to become the people's broadcaster and hardworking hero?," the North's Chosun Monthly magazine asked in an article last year.

Since the North's state media is in the habit of answering the questions it poses, the magazine tells of Ri's rise to fame, that of course was guided by state founder Kim Il-sung, who nurtured her "with warm love and faith".

[TigerLikesRooster]

You may have seen her.

Lee Chun-hee

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[Yossarian]

But would Lazamataz ‘hit it’?

[TigerLikesRooster]

My apologies. I pinged the wrong list.

[Ronin]

I’ve seen her broadcasts. It always sounds to me like she is sitting on a block of ice.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Imagine poor janitors at her TV station has to rip her frozen and glued bottom from the said ice block. And whenever they do that, she screams.:-)

[sheik yerbouty]

The US has Helen Thomas, the face that sank a thousand ships..

[AmericanInTokyo]

You have GOT to get in on this thread!!

PYONGYANG PATTY!!!!!

[AmericanInTokyo]

Thats OK

We need many many more people on our Korean threads on FR.

And now, with Omar Obongo in Seoul as I speak, it would be a good time for them to join!

[AmericanInTokyo]

Enjoy the Hawaiian music. Thought I would settle everyone before I posted the REAL LINK TO PYONGYANG PATTY

[ConservativeMind]

It’s amazing how butch the women who represent socialist countries look.

Lee Chun-hee for North Korea...Hillary Clinton for the US...

[TigerLikesRooster]

Yep. She deserves three dainty girls and two toy boys as her harem.:-)

[tanuki]

I remember seeing her after Kim sr. died. Oh, brother! Two minutes of that was all I could take.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Yes, for the un-indoctrinated, it would be too much to bear.:-)

[VampireStateNY]

LOL, saw the nickname before but didn’t realize it was her! She kinda reminds me of a nun at my old grade school. Stiff posture, angry tone - all that’s missing is the ruler! :-)

[SevenofNine]

YEAHHH Alright what happen to my fav gal LOL!

[SevenofNine]

In other wise known as my fav news reporter Pyrongang Patty LOL!

[SevenofNine]

Yeah that when she turn on the waterworks she cry