North Korean media is infamous for not allowing even the slightest criticism of its society.

The country’s journalists are sometimes willing to acknowledge nationwide hardships or problems created by local mismanagement. For example, state media mentions the Arduous March of the late 1990s and reported last year on Kim Jong Un visiting a rice paddy that allegedly flooded due to officials’ mistakes.

But official media never describes these problems in a satirical manner, and this has led many to believe that North Korea has never had a tradition of satire.

This is simply not the case.

As late as the