North Korea’s ruler, Kim Jong Un, owes the free press a “thank you” for the way it covered his Winter Olympics delegation this weekend. The pot-bellied despot could not have hoped for better reviews.

Kim dispatched his sister, Kim Yo Jong, and a handful of athletes and cheerleaders to Pyeongchang, South Korea, to represent his infamously repressive and murderous regime. The mere fact that some North Koreans were allowed to travel aboard was apparently enough for newsrooms to characterize the Hermit Kingdom’s rare incursion into world affairs as a successful “charm offensive.”