North Korea has been an easy target for comedians across the world to poke fun at; not in the least because of its "dear leader", who manages to court controversies even when doing nothing. Although there is no reliably honest account of how old Kim Jong-un is, it is widely suggested that he was born on 8 January 1983, making him, at 31, the youngest head of state in the world.
From feeding his uncle to hungry dogs, to recreating a Third Reich regime in North Korea, Kim Jong-un has courted more controversies than most leaders across the world.
Here is a look at some of the most outrageous rumours Pyongyang had to rebuff about their "dear leader".
Kim Jong-un was behind Sony Pictures hacking (2014)
When Sony Pictures' was hacked by a group -- "Guardians of Peace" -- and many of its sensitive information was leaked online along with digital prints and scripts of unreleased movies, all fingers was directly pointed at North Korea. Especially because Sony's film "The Interview" was condemned as a disgrace by the followers of "dear leader", whose assassination formed the main plot of the sarcastic film.
Meanwhile, Slate's Suki Kim came up with the theory that what North Korea actually wanted with the Sony hack scandal, was to distract everyone from United Nations' decision to International Criminal Court. We played right into the hands of the Pyongyang propagandists, she claimed.
Kim Jong-un is addicted to cheese (2014)
North Korean leader's dramatic weight gain was attributed it his inexplicable love for Swiss cheese by the media. It was claimed that he had gotten a whiff of Emmental while studying in Switzerland. Owing to his unhealthy appetite for cheese, he is also said to have been importing vast quantities despite Western sanctions.
Another explanation that surfaced regarding his weight gain was that he was deliberately trying to look more like his grandfather Kim Il-sung, who is the closest thing North Koreans have had to a God and even two decades after his death, he is honoured with the title Eternal President of the Republic.
Kim Jong-un fed his uncle to dogs (2013)
It is widely known that the leader had ordered the execution of his powerful uncle Jang Song-Thaek for "tremendous crimes against the government". However, the method of execution was never made public. Hence speculations regarding that started popping too.
A Chinese newspaper Wen Wei Po had reported that for the execution of Jang Song Thaek on 12 December included him being stripped naked and thrown into a cage of 120 hounds who had been starved for three days. However, later it was clarified by North Korea's ambassador to the UK Hyun Hak-bong that after a "fair trial" during which Thark confessed to his crimes, he was shot dead.
Copies of "Mein Kamf" distributed among North Korean Leaders as "guides" (2013)
An unnamed source in China had spread rumours that Hitler's autobiography, "mein Kamf" had been translated and handed out to officials in Pyongyang at the time of Kim Jong-un's birthday in 2013. The Nazi dictator's manifesto was intended to inspire top officials, reports claimed.
"Mentioning that Hitler managed to rebuild Germany in a short time following its defeat in World War 1, Kim Jong-un issued an order for the Third Reich to be studied in depth and asked that practical applications be drawn from it," Daily Mail had quoted the source.
Watch the clip of Kim Jong-un's death scene that was leaked from the controversial film, "The Interview"
