Chinese ridicule greets N Korea's blog When a microblog account opened to spread North Korean propaganda on Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, it tried to set clear terms. "Anyone who dares to insult the dignity of North Korea will not be tolerated under the heavens!" it declared in the introduction. China may be the reclusive Communist state's only ally, but that warning has fallen on deaf ears with Chinese "netizens." During the past three days they have bombarded the account, which appears to represent North Korea's official propaganda outlet, with a mix of scorn and ridicule. A picture of Kim Jong-il, the late leader, and his son Kim Jong-eun, who recently succeeded him, in matching clothes was posted with the propaganda slogan: "The great leader Comrade Kim Jong-il will be together with us forever!" One Chinese user reacted by saying: "By all means, do not be together with us!" Others decried him as an "evil dictator," and yet another commentator mocked: "I hear that the North Koreans suffer from hunger. Is that true? Sina verifies the identity of its mircoblog users but does not publish that information, making it impossible to determine conclusively whether the account is run by genuine North Korean officials. But by Friday evening local time, @todaykorea had garnered 56,800 followers and was attracting more at a pace of 400 an hour. The blend of fascination, horror and contempt expressed in the thousands of comments sheds light on China's uncomfortable alliance with its troublesome neighbour, and just how much China has changed in a generation. Many ordinary Chinese see their government's close ties with the pariah state as an embarrassment. For many, the totalitarian neighbour is a reminder of a nightmarish history they are glad to have left behind. "It used to be like that here when I was young," says Zhou Lide, a 55-year-old driver in Beijing. North Korea is still like China was under old Mao. We were so poor, we knew nothing, were allowed nothing and were afraid of everything. Mao Zedong, China's late ruler, subjected his country to murderous political campaigns, killing tens of millions. It was Mao who sent Chinese "volunteers" into the Korean war in 1950 to push back South Korean and US forces. Market reforms and the opening up of China in the years since Mao's death in 1976 have changed the country beyond recognition. But as Beijing's foreign policy values stability, continuity and non-interference in other states" internal affairs above all else, it maintains close ties with Pyongyang. While the Chinese Communist party continues to suppress dissent, often violently, its relationship with its people has switched from totalitarian propaganda to a keen focus on public opinion. Many Chinese officials have also learnt to use social media in a relatively sophisticated way. A long thread of comments on @todaykorea focused on the crude quality of the propaganda. As Kim Jong-il and his son had apparently been digitally implanted into another picture, one commentator wrote: "Photoshop is a product of American imperialism, hehe." Another remarked that North Korea needed some economic aid from China in the form of Photoshop experts. Additional reporting by Zhou Ping in Hong Kong