Apparently in North Korea, the surgeons can cook a mean soufflé

They say you shouldn’t judge by appearances or even fashion styles. Einstein often looked like someone who couldn’t even dress himself or comb his hair, but he turned out to be pretty smart. The best barbers don’t always have the best haircuts. In North Korea, the best surgeons often wear a chef’s hat when presenting new technology to their leaders. That’s the conclusion that can be drawn by the image above, which was released by the state-controlled news agency describing the new Taesongsan General Hospital being built by the army on orders of Kim Jong Eun. As The Atlantic’s David Graham pointed out on Twitter, “A friend notes that if your propaganda uses chefs as stand-ins for doctors, it may not work.”

A friend notes that if your propaganda uses chefs as stand-ins for doctors, it may not work. reuters.com/news/pictures/… twitter.com/GrahamDavidA/s… — David A. Graham (@GrahamDavidA) March 12, 2013

As tensions increase between North Korea and everyone else in the world other than China, it’s important for the regime to paint their government in as positive of a light as possible before performing the terrible evils they have planned (such as sending nuclear warheads towards the United States, as they threatened last week). This is all part of the plan, but they still have a tendency along with Iran of turning their propaganda into comical folly for western bloggers.