One of the Internet's most prolific Kim Jong-un memes. (Photo: 1mut)

A few weeks ago we reported that 4chan, the Internet's favorite underbelly, was galvanizing to vote North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to the top of Time’s person of the year reader poll. It seems it has been successful in its pursuit, as Time just announced that Kim Jong-un won the spot. This, of course, doesn't mean that he will certainly be the Time editors' person of the year pick, but it demonstrates the immense online voting power of 4chan.

Kim Jong-un garned 5.6 million votes, putting him just ahead of Jon Stewart. Time was gracious enough to acknowledge 4chan's influence:

However, some of the highest vote tallies got a boost from members of Internet forums like 4Chan who launched a campaign to manipulate the results pushing North Korea’s supreme leader to the top of the list.

A few days ago, 4chan also spelled out "KJU Gas Chambers" with the first letters of each nominee's name, because it's 4chan, guys.

(Photo: Imgur)

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is having the best week ever. After being nominated by The Onion as 2012's sexiest man alive--and having the announcement subsequently spread across papers in China as if The Onion is a legitimate news source--the meme-friendly leader now has 4chan gunning for him. Like it did for the site's founder Moot back in 2009, The Daily Dot reports that 4chan's /b/ board is assembling to affect the outcome of Time's Person of the Year award.

Though Time editors technically choose the winner, the magazine also runs a poll on its website for the Internet to decide who is the world's "Most Influential Person." Dubbed "Operation: Kim Jung Un for Time's Person of the Year," 4chan is already off to a good start: Kim Jong Un is currently ranked number two in the poll, trailing Egyptian president Mohamed Morsy.

Back in 2009, 4chan galvanized to successfully vote its cofounder, the litigious Chris Poole, as the World's Most Influential Person, beating Bernie Madoff, Oprah Winfrey and our very own POTUS. Back then, Time said its technical team detected several efforts to "hack the vote," so we suspect the devs at Time to be on high alert until voting closes December 12th.