Pororo pops up in Lee’s message to North Korea
After wrapping up his four-day state visit to China, President Lee Jae Myung sent a message to North Korea invoking Pororo, a cartoon penguin character familiar on both sides of the border. In a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, Lee wrote that “one day, the abnormal state of chaos and hostility on the Korean Peninsula will be overcome,” adding New Year’s greetings to the North. He paired the message with a photo of two penguins and the caption “Meet up, Ppo-Jae-myung and Ppo-Jong-un,” a play on words linking himself with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The post referenced a recent Hankyoreh column that mentions "Pororo the Little Penguin" as a joint South-North animation launched in 2003 through shared expertise and technology. The column notes that penguins are animals genetically wired to survive through coexistence and asks whether a similar instinct could guide relations between the two Koreas, imagining a meeting between the two leaders, characterized as Ppo-Jae-myung and Ppo-Jong-un. The timing of Lee’s message, shared shortly after his return from Ch
