North Korean media have debunked the long-standing myth that the Nation’s founder Kim Il-Sung was capable of teleportation.

The late Kim, dubbed the ’eternal president’, ruled the country from 1948 to 1994 and was said to have magical powers that helped him in his battle encounters.

But a report in a state-run newspaper has now admitted the revered leader was not in fact capable of ’shrinking the earth’ in order to travel from one place to another in an instant.

Party-controlled paper Rodong Shinmum ran the article titled ’The Secret To Teleportation’ in which they referred to the 1940s legend that he had used magical skills to confound Japanese occupiers.

Previous stories had claimed that the ruler used a technique called 'chukjibeop' or 'folding space' to lead his forces to victory; something which was widely believed across the state.

Radio Free Asia explained that 'chukjibeop' is like teleportation portrayed by Kung Fu fighters in films when they move so quickly they seem to temporarily disappear and reappear, almost instantly, in the blind spot of their enemy.

However, the article stated that ’people can't disappear and reappear by folding space’, something which Kim himself had even reportedly said at the time, instead celebrating his victory as being down to popularity rather than magic.

Current supreme ruler Kim Jong-Un has also admitted this and Radio Free Asia added that this was his way of playing down supernatural illusions surrounding his ancestors.

According to an official at South Korea’s Unification Ministry, this is the first known incident of a widespread Kim family myth being publicly debunked in print and he urged that this should not be ignored.

“We need to pay attention to the current leader’s denial of the mythification of his predecessors,” he said.

The Kim family have often been accredited with ’God-like’ qualities, to wit their ability to control the weather, rumours that Kim Jong-Un could drive at the age of three and that his father Kim Jong-il shot five holes-in-one on his first attempt at golf.

Kim Jong-Un has recently been the subject of much media attention after he disappeared from the public eye for several weeks amid rumours ranging from him being in a  coma following botched heart surgery, to actually being dead.