PR pros wouldn’t normally tell clients who want to go viral to “keep it creepy”, but the approach seems to be working for one Kim Jong-Un.

Kim’s PR strategy is actually very similar to that of major blogs: post lots of content on a regular basis and make it as weird and “WTF?” as possible. Most of the very, very few people in North Korea who have Internet access work for Kim’s propaganda department. And while much of the West chuckles at their strange videos and stories about unicorns, this viral content seems to grant a certain legitimacy to an oppressive and genocidal regime. South Korea’s national security director tells The Washington Post that the “headline campaign” is at least partially responsible for a sevenfold increase in news coverage and searches related to North Korea.

Now check out this YouTube page if you enjoy watching insane people do insane things.

The lesson here is really all about creating a story and then newsjacking your own work in order to gain even more attention. Of course, most of the public will be less interested in a product rollout than a mysterious dictatorship’s ongoing attempts to scare everyone’s pants off. Still…

What’s the toughest PR challenge you can imagine? Representing an institution charged with sheltering child abusers? Defending a multinational corporation for mistakes that cost others their lives and livelihoods? How about presenting the very best of a murderous dictatorship to an outside world that firmly rejects every attempt to make nice?

We were fascinated by today’s Christian Science Monitor profile of the man Kim Jong-un hired to perform public relations duties for the People’s Republic of North Korea. That still-mysterious country is one of the few things on the planet Earth that remains less popular than the Kardashian family.

His name is Alejandro Cao de Benós, he’s a Spanish man with “aristocratic roots”, and his official blog features a lot of stories about “Corea del Norte”. What else? He appears to have been an enthusiastic North Korean sympathizer for some time, and as the only non-Korean employee of the nation’s foreign ministry, it’s his job to travel around the world, speak to various media outlets and try (in vain) to convince people that Kim Jong-un isn’t as bad as we all seem to think he is. Cao de Benós’s only real messaging strategy is to insist that “everything you’ve heard is a lie” and that every supposedly bad thing North Korea does is in direct response to an aggressive action from the West (aka America).

Oof.

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We’ll go ahead and say it: if anyone could make an instrumental version of the awful Michael Jackson/Lionel Richie/every other lame pop star in the universe charity single “We Are the World” bearable, it would be North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

Kim, whose barely believable PR strategies include giving free candy to babies and announcing the discovery of the ancient unicorn’s secret tomb, seems determined to convince his subjects that North Korea’s nuclear weapons program will soon be mighty enough to straight up destroy all the country’s unfortunate enemies–entire nations of evildoers like, say, The United States. It’s an interesting look at how the other .000001% of the world lives.

The key message: “Despite all kinds of attempts by imperialists to isolate and crush us… never will anyone be able to stop the people marching toward a final victory”. Our favorite part of this bizarre video is the “footage” of America’s doom ripped from the video game “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.”

Larger PR lesson: How many times have we told you about the importance of original content?!

Today brings an interesting answer to that age-old question: How do murderous dictators endear themselves to members of their adoring/oppressed public (beyond the usual death threats, endless propaganda reels, and incredible displays of nationalistic pride like this one)?

North Korea‘s Kim Jong-un takes a novel approach to the challenge of better serving the people who never directly supported him in the first place: today his nation’s state-run media let the world know that he sent every single North Korean child 2.2 pounds of candy in celebration of his own mysterious birthday (no one can agree on his age).

While this tradition is unusual, it’s nothing new: it began with the current dictator’s own grandfather. The logic behind the strategy is perverse, but we have no doubt that these yearly gift baskets serve as bright spots for the citizens of a nation as restricted and suppressed as North Korea.

Now we’re curious about Google‘s “don’t be evil” co-founder Eric Schmidt, who arrived in the world’s evil-est country today alongside former New Mexico governor and United Nations ambassador Bill Richardson. What’s he doing there, exactly?

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Before we leave for the weekend we feel an obligation to share what is, without even the slightest doubt, the very best press release of the week (if not the year).

This one comes to us from the tragically, hilariously misnamed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and its news agency, KCNA (don’t even bother clicking on the link if you want to retain your sanity).

According to the amazing release we’ve captured via screenshot below, archaeologists representing the DPRK and its Very Important History Institute “have recently reconfirmed a lair of the unicorn rode by King Tongmyong, founder of the Koguryo Kingdom (B.C. 277-A.D. 668).” Note the use of the word “reconfirmed”–it was there all along, but they just had to make sure.

Does it get better? Oh yes.

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In this photo, a camera crew seems to be omitted and the snow appears whiter. Photo: KCNA/Reuters

The world has seen more of North Korea since the death of Kim Jong Il than it has in the many years prior. With the world watching, the isolated and secretive country has been sure to put on a show for global onlookers.

Over the past week and a half, we’ve become familiar with the overwhelming expressions of grief coming from the North Korean people, which some speculate may be exaggerated because the authoritarian government wouldn’t have it any other way. We have an ABC news clip about that after the jump.

The Guardian also suspects that an image from the memorial service (above) may have been Photoshopped (click to their website for the original image). It’s not clear what would be gained by altering the photo, but we’re confused over most everything else about this country.

Today was also the public coronation of Kim Jong Un, Kim Jong Il’s son, to “supreme leader.”

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Kim Jong Il liked the movies and was said to have a collection of 20,000 of them.

News today has focused on the next steps for North Korea, a country that manages to keep itself shrouded in mystery despite the forces of social media and other information-sharing tools.

What we know: newscasters wept on-air and citizens were weeping openly in the streets after news hit of Dear Leader’s death; Kim Jong Il wanted his youngest son Kim Jong Un to take the leadership role once he was gone; the U.N. has once again raised the issue of ongoing human rights abuses in the country; and one man’s trip to lay flowers at the North Korean embassy in London is newsworthy.

What we don’t know: mostly everything else.

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