Wikipedia says his voice only went over radio one time(in 1992).
Does he not give speeches/lectures on television radio there?
I’ve never heard that he didn’t speak out loud there.
What is the straight dope?
Anyone?
When I was in the DPRK he was on TV all the time (literally), but I never heard him speak - it was always a voice-over.
I just read Nothing To Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick. One of the North Koreans she interviewed (it’s impossible to talk to North Koreans in North Korea – everyone she interviewed in the book had escaped to China or the South) said that he first heard Kim Jong Il’s voice from a South Korean TV channel. He had sabotaged his TV so he could receive foreign broadcasts. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the bizarre state of North Korea. There is nothing like it on the planet.
Why would he not let his voice be broadcast? Does he have a lisp or speech impediment or something?
If it is true, which it looks like it is, it is probably to make himself a “cult” kind of person. It makes him more mysterious if people never hear him.
Mao actually appeared in public less and less as he got older. It made him seem like “God” kind of.
Actually, he’s quite the crooner