Seoul (AsiaNews) - After the international tensions with South Korea, the United States and even China, the Stalinist regime of North Korea faces a new and formidable enemy: Mickey Mouse. After airing a television show in honor of the new dictator Kim Jong-un, in which Disney characters appeared, the U.S. major brand has decided to request payment from Pyongyang.
North Korea "has no right to use trademarks without paying royalties. No one from that country asked us to use our characters in a public television show, and this is not correct." This is what a spokesman for the Walt Disney Company said, explaining that "we are studying the possibility of commercial redress to obtain the amount owed."
The North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, third son and heir to Kim Jong-il, appeared on television alongside Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh during a concert of the national orchestra aired on state television, which two days ago showed images of the show held by actors dressed as famous Disney characters in front of Kim and a group of generals.
In a few moments of the show there were also projected some images of the movie "Dumbo" and "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Among the costumes on stage there were Mickey, Minnie, Beauty and the Beast and Snow White. It is, several analysts have noted, a gesture of openness towards the West: the father and the grandfather of the dictator never allowed these symbols of "Western decadence and propaganda" to appear in the country.
According to Jong-un, who also allowed the opening of a fast-food restaurant and a pizzeria in Pyongyang, "we must take the best from countries around the world and make it ours, to make sure that it lines up with our revolution".