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North Korea Demands Citizens Named Kim Jong Un Change Their Names

An undated picture released by the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of North Korea's ruling Workers Party, on 02 December 2014 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un talking to soldiers during his visit to an artillery unit at an undisclosed location, North Korea. EPA

By Doug Saffir

December 4, 2014

1 minute to read

It’s pretty evident by now that, like his father and his father before him, Kim Jong Un runs a tight ship in North Korea. How tight does he run it? How about “no one else can have the same name as me and if they do they have to change it or else’’ tight?

Yes, that’s the rule of law over in North Korea. Like his father Kim Jong Il and his grandfather Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Un has demanded that anyone sharing his name stop using it and actually go back and change it on their birth certificates and housing records, according to Reuters.

And while the report says that “Kim is a very common family name and Jong Un are common given names,’’ none of that matters. Like Highlander, there can only be one.