‘Lady in Pink’ will announce the nuclear apocalypse
The world is on edge right now. In Pyongyang, an unstable, neurotic leader with nuclear weapons continues to aggressively test the patience of the world. In Washington, an unstable, neurotic leader with nuclear weapons seems to have little idea what to do. It is a terrifying time as hostilities on the Korean peninsula heat up.
But if and when Kim Jong Un does press the big red button, it will be a 70-something grandmother who will tell the world. Meet Ri Chun-hee, one of the most notorious newsreaders in the world.
Ri is a broadcasting legend. Since 1974, she has been a host on Pyongyang’s state-run Korean Central Television and in that time she has ascended to the chief anchor role. She now hosts the 8 p.m. news bulletin.
Signature pink
Her bellowing broadcasts are not only played publicly in North Korea, but she has been the public face of the hermit kingdom to the world for decades.
It was she, clad in her signature pink and seated in front of a curious painting of a lake, who this week confirmed the terrifying news the world already suspected. “The test of a hydrogen bomb designed to be mounted on our intercontinental ballistic missile was a perfect success. It was a very meaningful step in completing the national nuclear weapons program,” she thundered.
Her return to the limelight in recent months has been interpreted as a signal of just how serious Pyongyang is about escalating the possibility of global conflict. Ri, who has also earned the nickname “Pyongyang Patti,” is basically the regime’s propaganda big gun.
Sound and fury
On screen, she is unlike anything you have seen before. With seemingly no teleprompter, Ri essentially performs a theatrical reading of the news, which tends to focus on the incredible achievements of North Korea. Her delivery can veer dramatically from bombastic proclamations to sobbing tears in moments. Some reports have suggested she may have been a trained actor in the past.
Like so many things with the reclusive regime, facts are hard to come by. While it’s thought Ri is now in her early 70s, her age has never been confirmed.
What is known is that over her lengthy career, she has become the highly trusted face and voice of the hermit kingdom to not only her countrymen and -women but the world, somehow evading the regular purges and “re-education” drives.
Powerful mentor
She is said to have been a protege of state founder Kim Il Sung in the 1970s, and it was with his mentorship that she developed her signature thundering on-air delivery.
A profile of Ri in North Korean magazine Chosun Monthly reportedly revealed that “as these days passed, her voice grew to have an appeal so that whenever she would speak on the news, viewers were touched. When Ri announced reports and statements, enemies would tremble in fear.”
By the 1980s, Ri had become something of the Diane Sawyer of North Korea, a regular presence in North Korean homes (well, those lucky enough to not only have electricity but a TV), offering regular updates on everything from crop yields to weather reports.
It was Ri who tearfully first reported the death of Kim Il Sung in 1994 and then his son Kim Jong Il in 2011.
As such a trusted lieutenant to the state’s dictatorial leadership, Ri has enjoyed a life of relative luxury in Pyongyang, according to reports. In recent years, she is said to have semi-retired.
But with North Korea’s renewed nuclear saber-rattling and repeated missile tests, she has returned to center stage and TV screens. For the good of the world, we really hope we don’t see much of her in the future.