This is Randi Hacker with another Postcard from Abroad from the KU Center for East Asian Studies.

Legend has it that if you throw a stone from the summit of Mt. Namsan here in Seoul, you are bound to clip a person whose last name is either Kim or Lee. In fact, one out of every five Koreans is named Kim. The same is true in North Korea. The most famous of the Kims are, of course, the members of the Kim Dictator Dynasty: Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un. Recently, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, Kim Jong Un decreed that nobody in North Korea could be named Kim Jong Un except him. And this doesn’t just pertain to new babies, no; anyone who is currently named Kim Jong Un – and that’s a lot because Jong Un is a common name for both men and women – must voluntarily change their name. Lest you think The Supreme Leader is being terribly unreasonable, keep in mind that he’s asking people to change their first name, not their last…Yet.

From the KU Center for East Asian Studies, this is Randi Hacker. Wish you were here.