Story:
North Korea lands first ever Man on the Sun, confirms Central News Agency.
Other Versions
North Korea confirms it has landed a man on the Sun.
North Korea sends a 17-year-old man to the Sun, a journey that took just four hours.
Analysis:
These messages circulating heavily online claim that North Korea has supposedly sent a 17-year-old man to the Sun successfully, and that the ‘achievement’ is also confirmed by their Central News Agency. It is not so!
These claims of North Korea sending a man to Sun originated from an article in Waterford Whispers News website that was published on 21 January 2014. The article said that the State News Agency of North Korea has confirmed that they have become the first in the world to ever land a man on the sun. The article and the website are basically a work of satire and humor.
As mentioned in their About page, the Waterford Whispers website is a satire news source in Ireland that publishes witty content. The first paragraph from their Disclaimer confirms the same:
Waterford Whispers News is a fabricated satirical newspaper and comedy website published by Waterford Whispers News.
The humorous article states that the 17 year old astronaut Hung Il Gong left for the sun alone on a specially designed rocket ship and reached his destination in about four hours. To add further to the humor, it is said that the man traveled at night to avoid being engulfed by the Sun’s rays, and that he started approximately 3am that morning and was expected to return back to earth at 9pm the same night.
So the claims that North Korea has landed a man on Sun are plain hoax. The satirical report went viral because media outlets like Canadian Free Press, TweakTown and KTAR were “taken in by the tale”. This is not the first time that Internet has been duped by fake, satirical and humor stories like this.
Hoax or Fact:
Hoax.
References:
Whoops… Media outlets duped by North Korea ‘rocket to the sun’ story
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