Kim Jong-Un, North Korea's dictator, was voted by Time readers as their Person of the Year, the magazine said Thursday.
The successor to his authoritarian father Kim Jong-Il received 5.6 million votes on Time's Person of the Year Poll, the magazine said.
Time's official Person of the Year, whose face will grace the cover of the newsweekly as per tradition, will be determined by editors and announced on Dec. 19. The editors will reveal their choice — based on whom they think most influenced the news in 2012 — on NBC's "Today" show and on Time's website, as well as on Twitter.
“While we don’t make our selection based on the poll results,” Time executive editor Radhika Jones said in a recent interview with her magazine, “it’s always interesting to see where some of our preferred candidates end up.”
Since taking over the so-called hermit kingdom in late 2011, Kim has provided ample fodder for satire and news. His face appeared on Time's cover after he secured his grip over the country. And he was even named "Sexiest Man Alive" by the satirical newspaper the Onion, though a Chinese news service erroneously picked up on the story as if it were real.
Among the top 10 people in the reader poll were "The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart, Undocumented Immigrants, Burmese leaders Aung San Suu Kyi and Thein Sein, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi.
But Internet trolls on forums like 4Chan launched an effort to push Kim to No. 1. It was unclear whether they were responsible for his win.
Kim, meanwhile, continues to look at things.
