You probably haven’t heard her name before but, perhaps at some point, you’ve seen the diminutive Ri Chun-hee delivering the news at the bidding of the North Korean propaganda machine that is state television.

Wednesday was another big day for Chun-hee, appearing in the country’s national dress of chima jeogori and announcing that North Korea had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb.

Seriously, check how stoked she is during the live broadcast:

The crowd went wild, although the story behind Chun-hee’s rise to prominence is what we will focus on here. CNN reports:

North Korea’s most famous anchor was reportedly born in 1943 and trained as an actress before taking to the air with North Korea’s only television channel in 1971.

Known as the “people’s broadcaster” she then graced the nation’s screens for the next 40 years, using her extensive dramatic range to deliver broadcasts in a variety of tones — ranging from the mournful to the downright menacing.

Perhaps her most important broadcast ever was announcing the passing of Kim Jong Il in 2011:

Touching send off to a murderous and evil dictator who kept many of his citizens locked up in prison-style slave camps.

Back to the story of Chun-hee then, who gave a wide-ranging interview back in 2012 that shed more light on her life and her intentions to take a back seat:

“Many anchor women now are very young and beautiful,” she conceded modestly. “And far more suitable to appear before the viewers.”

She also let the Chinese broadcaster into some of her tricks of the trade; she informed them she believed every anchor should have their own style to impress viewers with. She also said that different tones should be adopted, depending on the subject matter.

“When we read to the DPRK (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the country’s official name) we shouldn’t sound as if we are shouting, but speak gently to viewers,” she said.

Mind you not everyone is a fan, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise when you consider that she is the mouthpiece for a truly awful regime:

“It’s a hate filled voice,” Brian Myers, North Korean propaganda analyst [said].

“It kind of reminds me of what George Orwell was talking about in 1984, when he talked about the two-minute hate.”

“It’s a voice just laden with scorn and hate.”

I don’t think she’d make a lovely dinner guest, although given her connections to Kim Jong-un I wouldn’t tell that to her face.

[source:cnn]