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North Korea will build your dictator's giant statue, cheaply

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[img]/images/North_Korea_Statue_Export_Ad.jpg[/img]

Hurry! Giant dictator statues (GDS) built to your specifications, deep discounts if ordered in bulk. Whether you run a dictatorship in Africa, Asia, or South America, select from their easy-to-use catalog of heroic postures and inspiring gestures (raised arms extra), and your GDS will be delivered to your palace doorstep before you can say "coup d'état."

For a little extra their experts will design a region-specific costume and body type, but if you want to go dirt-cheap, basic models are available, resembling an over-sized member of the Kim family wearing a North Korean uniform. That's what most customers prefer anyway, unwilling to invest too much in the current political climate.

All statues are bronze, hollow, and topple-ready. Pedestal provided by customer.

Hurry while your dictatorship lasts!

But even if your particular dear leader takes one for the grateful nation and dies, we have an even better deal: check out this Preserve Your Dictator infomercial!

BBC: North Korea's 'biggest' export - giant statues

The export of this bold, direct, firmly authoritarian style began in the early 1980s as a diplomatic gift to socialist or non-aligned countries from their North Korean brothers. More recently it's become a valuable source of hard currency, with artists and craftsmen from MOP working in Angola, Benin, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia and Togo. Local media in Zimbabwe report there are two giant Robert Mugabes in storage waiting to commemorate his death. And most famously, in Senegal the giant African Renaissance Monument was cast on site by Mansudae craftsmen and dedicated in 2010. It's estimated that the studio has earned tens of millions of dollars in this way.

North Korean art seems to appeal to African leaders for two reasons. First, because the price is right. Senegal paid for its 49m-high (161ft) statue by giving some land to the North Koreans - who immediately sold it for cash.

The second reason is the style. "The Russians and Chinese don't make that kind of stuff any more," says art critic William Feaver. "The appeal is in the statement of the obvious - and of course size is everything." He sees enthusiasm for the style as part of a nation-building process. "You could think of Mount Rushmore as the American version, performing a similar celebration of founding fathers for a relatively new nation keen to assert itself in the world."
We are glad North Korea has finally found a legitimate economic niche on the world market, because previously its only export seemed to be fake Viagra, counterfeit U.S. dollar bills, and nuclear bomb technology.

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What will Dear Leader Obama's and Chairman Sanders' statues look like? I can't wait to see...

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Comrade Rokossovksy wrote:What will Dear Leader Obama's and Chairman Sanders' statues look like? I can't wait to see...
From the People's Cube archives:

[img]/images/Obama_Statue_Palace_Soviets_Moscow.jpg[/img]

[img]/images/Obama_Peeing_Boy.jpg[/img]

[img]/images/Atlantis_Obama_Statue_full.jpg[/img]

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Huh. Apparently, it's not twoo, it's not twoo.

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Despite our egalitarian wishes, some statues show that some leaders are "more equal" than others:

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--KOOK

All those statues look like they're saying "Hey, pull my finger!"


 
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