South Korea stops to watch wall to wall Kim coverage

South Koreans watched yesterday as history unfolded and Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader they normally only see in heavily edited footage, walked across the border and had his every word broadcast live and unfiltered on airwaves across the country.

From train platforms to tech forums, South Korean took a pause from their normal routines to get a glimpse of Kim as he became the first North Korean leader to visit South Korean territory. Major South Korean television networks cancelled their usual programming for wall-to-wall coverage of the inter-korean summit with President Moon Jae-in. “I can’t believe I’m listening to the voice of Kim Jong-un. Someone I have only seen as jpg is speaking now,” South Korean Lee Yeon-su wrote on Twitter.

South Koreans used the rare opportunity of seeing raw footage of Kim to speculate on everything from his speech habits to his health. Some even said they found Kim cute.

“Most South Koreans probably heard his voice for the first time. I found his way of speaking friendly, like a guy living next door,” said Ryu Seok-woo, a reporter.

Some noted that the reclusive leader, who rules his country unquestioned, seemed to drone on and on in his first speech. They speculated that he had never been stopped or interrupted when speaking before.

There was a moment many South Korean noted when Kim made an off-the-cuff comment about naengmyeon, cold buckwheat noodles that are a North Korean delicacy popular among South Koreans and are to be served at Kim and Moon’s dinner meeting.

“Pyongyang naengmyeon that came from afar. Ah, I shouldn’t say it’s from afar,” Kim said.

Kim appeared to be making a joke about the distance between the two countries.

The remarks went viral on social media as people shared them in disbelief and even suggested he had a future in comedy. “I thought he had a sense of humour,” said Lee Seung-won, an office worker. “I thought I would never see such scene.”