Top 10 ‘craziest’ claims about Kim Jong-il

Kim Jong-il, the North Korean dictator who passed away recently, was the subject of a string of fantastical yarns in his country.

One story says that he had a supernatural birth and when he was born on the country’s sacred Mt Paektu in 1942, winter changed to spring and rainbows appeared.

The government’s media also contributed to such stories, one of them stating that he was the world’s best golfer and shot 11 holes-in-one in his first attempt at golf in 1994.

In his pursuit of a socialist Godzilla, the dictator even kidnapped a South Korean director and actress to make such a film, says another story.

According to a communist newspaper, Jong-il’s suits were a global hit, reports the Daily Star.

Perhaps the craziest claim about him was made by his official biography on the state web site, which says that Kim Jong-il did not ever defecate.

There are also tales of his creating a wonder drug to make short people tall and the government making the pill available to thousands of North Koreans.

In some stories, he is also shown as a fussy eater who only ate rice of the same length with female staff inspecting each grain for its size and colour.

In 2004, he himself claimed to have invented the hamburger.

He is also said to be the world’s biggest cognac drinker and a CIA psychologist revealed that the dictator loved Hennessy and spent 463,661 pounds a year on the tipple that retails at 399 pounds a bottle in Korea.