North Korea has threatened to kill the authors of a report

19/06/2013

North Korea has threatened to kill the authors of a report claiming Kim Jong-un used Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf as a leadership guide.

The article by New Focus International, an online news portal run by North Korean defectors, said Mr Kim gave copies of the German Nazi dictator’s manifesto to his top officials.

The report, sourced to an unnamed North Korean official working in China, said the translated copies were handed out at the time of Mr Kim’s birthday in January.

“Mentioning that Hitler managed to rebuild Germany in a short time following its defeat in World War I, Kim Jong-un issued an order for the Third Reich to be studied in depth and asked that practical applications be drawn from it,” the source was quoted as saying.

Mr Kim also stressed that sports had played a key role in cementing unity and spreading Nazi ideology in Germany, and called for policies to encourage sporting activities among North Koreans, the source said.

The report was picked up by all major South Korean newspapers on Wednesday.

But the North’s police agency later called the report a “thrice-cursed crime” aimed at belittling its leader, and threatened to kill the “human scum” behind the article.