With nationwide elections set for Sunday, North Korean strongman Kim Jong Un has good reason to yuk it up with these fawning female pilots — because he and his political stooges will be the only ones on the ballot.
The insular country — which on Friday released this photo of Kim inspecting his air force — is in the throes of election fever, with lists of voters plastered on billboards and posters depicting joyous citizens and bearing slogans like, “Let’s all take part,” the Times of London reported.
But in the Stalinist autocracy’s version of Election Day, only a single candidate’s name appears on ballots for each position.
Kim is running for election to the Supreme Assembly in the constituency of Mount Paektu near the Chinese border.
The elections, staged every five years, are primarily viewed as an occasion for citizens to express their patriotic devotion to the pudgy leader and his family.
Voters will be given paper ballots with just one name on them — that of whoever was endorsed by Kim’s Korean Workers Party.
North Koreans can vote “no” but would have to walk over — in public view — to another booth at the polls and cross out the endorsed candidate’s name.
Few are expected to take that chance.