North Korea's zany, despotic and now dead dear leader Kim Jong-Il reportedly spent $720,000 a year on Hennessy cognac (while his people starved) but the French luxury brandy maker says they'll get along fine without his business. "I don't usually get someone of his notoriety, in more ways than one," a Hennessy spokesperson told Foreign Policy on Friday afternoon, adding that the dear leaders death hadn't affected sales. "I just know that cognac in general is extremely popular among the Asian community. It's a very large status symbol, and we're one of the premier luxury cognacs in the world, and it's not surprising that he would gravitate towards that."

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Adam Clark Estes