The People's Daily on Tuesday ran a photo spread on its website in a tribute to the round-faced leader, under the headline "North Korea's top leader named The Onion's Sexiest Man Alive for 2012."
Quoting the Onion's spoof report, the Chinese newspaper wrote: "With his devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his strong, sturdy frame, this Pyongyang-bred heart-throb is every woman's dream come true."
"Blessed with an air of power that masks an unmistakable cute, cuddly side, Kim made this newspaper's editorial board swoon with his impeccable fashion sense, chic short hairstyle, and, of course, that famous smile," the People's Daily cited the Onion as saying.
The photos the People's Daily selected include Mr Kim on horseback squinting into the light and Mr Kim waving towards a military parade. In other photos, Kim is wearing sunglasses and smiling, or touring a facility with his wife.
A man who answered the phone at the newspaper's duty office said he did not know anything about the report and requested queries be directed to their newsroom on Wednesday morning.
In The Onion's original article, it listed Mr Kim in a group of winners including Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian leader.
It is not the first time a state-run Chinese newspaper has fallen for a fictional report by The Onion.
In 2002, the Beijing Evening News, one of the capital city's biggest tabloids at the time, published as news the fictional account that the US Congress wanted a new building and that it might leave Washington. The Onion article was a spoof of the way US sports teams threaten to leave cities in order to get new stadiums.
Earlier this year, Iran's state media fell for a made-up poll from the website claiming a majority of rural white Americans would vote for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over Barack Obama.
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