Parallel can be drawn between the Kim Jong Un’s North Korea & Alice’s wonderland

Rockets and begonias are said to be the preferred objects to be bestowed names of North Korea’s ruling family, much like the Queen of Hearts’ predilection for red roses and croquet in Alice in Wonderland.

Indeed, as this week’s commemorations of the late Kim Jong-il featured the debut of a red begonia named Kimjongilia and a rocket called Kwangmyongsong (‘Shining Star’, a favoured agnomen of his), it is a wonder analysts have not zeroed in on the current Kim’s resemblance to Lewis Carroll’s sanguinary sovereign. Particularly since her favourite line echoes Kim Jong-un’s own proclivities, “Off with his head!” Of course, the novel’s doomed denizens and their bloodthirsty queen were but a pack of cards, so no harm was done. Unfortunately, North Koreans aren’t cards but Kim’s modus has a sinister consonance with the Queen’s.

His take on crises is tellingly like hers. When the executioner said he could not cut off the dematerialising Cheshire Cat’s head as there was no body below, the Queen’s Kim-like answer was, “If something wasn’t done about it in less than no time, she’d have everybody executed, all round”. As he created the Queen, Carroll’s book may hold the key to dealing with Kim as well.

So why has it not been banned in North Korea? Curiouser and curiouser.