North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un uses Western speculation of his health as fuel for his self-promotional propaganda, explained Michael Malice, author of Dear Reader: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Jong Il and host of YOUR WELCOME, offering his comments on Monday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with host Rebecca Mansour and special guest host Dylan Gwinn.

CNN recently advanced unsubstantiated claims of Kim being in “grave danger” following surgery, citing an unnamed “U.S. official.” South Korea’s Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul — the official in charge of ties to North Korea — subsequently dismissed the report as “fake news.”

Gwinn asked why North Korea had not provided evidence of Kim’s health to challenge claims pushed by CNN.

“North Korea makes us dance,” replied Malice. “You don’t make them dance. That’s their whole thing. They call themselves a shrimp among whales, so they get pleasure from the fact that they force other big powerful nations to react. They go, ‘Look. Look how much [we] punch above [our] weight.'”

Malice continued, “We’re all talking about North Korea. None of us are talking about Honduras. I’m sure there’s lots going on in Honduras. We’re not talking about Sudan. We can name many, many countries with a population of 20-25 million, and no one cares, but in America and the rest of world, it’s ‘Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-un.'”

Malice added, “Now [Kim Jong-un] can say to his population, honestly, ‘Look, the whole world cares about my health. The whole world wants to know if I’m alive or dead. They are so interested in North Korea. That’s how important we are,’ and it’s not that much of a twist of facts to portray that as a reality.”

LISTEN:

Americans are broadly naive about evil, assessed Malice.

Malice remarked, “Americans are very, very privileged. Americans don’t know what evil is. Americans don’t understand how depraved people in power can be — even American presidents at their worst — so they are so used to perceiving things in their own narrow prisms and through their own narrow context.”

American ignorance of evil is linked to a “John Stewart Daily Show kind of attitude,” Malice determined, describing such persons as “members of our population [who] are trained.”

Malice added, “This is also why I love talking to Christians because Christians do understand that evil exists.”

The ubiquity of modern telecommunications — particularly cameras within phones — poses some threat to authoritarian regimes, determined Malice, speculating on the possible future end of the Chinese Communist Party’s control of China.

Malice stated, “The other big advantage we have now over ’91 is that everyone is a cameraman. Everyone has a tape-recorder on them at all times, everyone. … I don’t think they could pull off a Tiananmen square today.”

Breitbart News Tonight broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot channel 125 weeknights from 9:00 p.m. to midnight Eastern or 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Pacific.

Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter.