N. Korea's Kim Jong Il Died in 2003; Replaced By a Lookalike, says Waseda Professor

N. Korea's Kim Jong Il Died in 2003; Replaced By a Lookalike, says Waseda Professor

www.japantoday .com

Is Kim Jong Il dead? Yes, North Korea’s “Dear Leader” is no more, having passed away in the fall of 2003, writes Waseda University professor Toshimitsu Shigemura in Shukan Gendai (Aug 23-30).

A one-time Mainichi Shimbun journalist posted in Seoul, Shigemura is introduced by the magazine as a leading authority on the Korean Peninsula. His latest book, released this month, is titled “The True Character of Kim Jong Il.”
If true, the implications are potentially vast. Among them: former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s summit partner during one or both of his landmark visits to Pyongyang in 2002 and 2004 was not Kim himself but a dummy—the stand-in Shigemura claims has been fooling the world for at least five years.
A dictator having one or multiple doubles is a familiar notion since Iraq’s Saddam Hussein was shown to have deployed them. But Saddam was alive at the time. Kim, in Shigemura’s scenario, was not manipulating a look-alike; he was replaced by one.

(visit the link for the full news article)

LOL!

This is probably just sensasionalizm to sell a book, but after the Saddam double, and some very questionable looking "Bin Laden's", it makes me ponder somewhat--How often might something like this have happened in the past? A top leader replaced with a lookalike double?

Perhaps assassinated for their stances, or going against the status quo, then replaced by someone who would continue on with the larger agenda?

Pretty wild to think about the possibilities IMO...

Kim’s family, meanwhile, was in a state of upheaval. His wife died—of breast cancer, said official reports; assassinated, according to persistent rumors. His favorite sister, a high-ranking Communist Party official, suddenly moved to Paris. Her husband lost his post. Clearly something was afoot.
In the spring of 2006, says Shigemura, American spy satellites succeeded in photographing Kim. An analysis of the photographs led to an astonishing conclusion: Kim had grown 2.5 cm!

www.japantoday .com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Their website appears to be down. It takes several attempts to get it to load, and even if it does load, it isn't in its normal format.

Reading the article, I don't see any extraordinary proof of this extraordinary claim. It outlines odd family events and gives a timeline of meetings and media attention, but that is about it. I don't really consider that proof of anything.

What needs to be done is a facial recognition comparison between Kim Jong Il and his alleged replacement. If an expert were to compare photos of Kim Jong Il and his alleged replacement, and concluded they weren't the same person, then I think there would be something to this.

Until then, "the current shogun" and supposedly growing 2.5 cm isn't enough.

Although it might be nothing more than fantasy to gain interest in something.
I seriously wouldn't put it past the North Koreans to do something like this.
In fact I would think it completely normal of them to do weird communistic lying type things of this nature.
In fact I probably would only believe it in relation to North Korea.
Possibly China.

reply to post by NovusOrdoMundi


Hey friend, try it again-I just clicked on the link and it came up okay, albeit a little slow.

I agree, the facial recognition comparison should be done. Perhaps some ATS experts could pull up some dated photos and enhance? haha

Originally posted by Interestinggg
In fact I would think it completely normal of them to do weird communistic lying type things of this nature.
In fact I probably would only believe it in relation to North Korea.

Was Iraq a communist nation and I missed it? Saddam Hussein did this, so you believing it only in relation to North Korea and it being a purely communist ploy are both incorrect.

What about communism means you use a body double? Does that mean if Obama gets assassinated we won't know about it?

Doubt it.


If true, not much has changed in the countries ruling over last 5 years...
So the replacement would have to have same mind-set and hate for the West as Kim Jong Il himself.

It has to be the same guy, for the country is the same.

IF there is a double, I highly doubt this person is the one really running the country. If he did die, he was replaced with a double to help keep stability and authority of the government. The actual policy/decision making would be done be another person/committee of people from behind the scenes.

Originally posted by Anonymous ATS
IF there is a double, I highly doubt this person is the one really running the country. If he did die, he was replaced with a double to help keep stability and authority of the government. The actual policy/decision making would be done be another person/committee of people from behind the scenes.

As in, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain ..." from the Wizard of Oz. But I wonder who inherited Kim's Disney and porn collections?

For those having trouble with the first link the story has been picked up by several news stations.

www.timesonline.co.uk...


Is Kim Jong-il for real? The question has baffled foreign intelligence agencies for years but now a veteran Japanese expert on North Korea says the “dear leader” is actually dead – and his role is played by a double.

The expert says Kim died of diabetes in 2003 and world leaders including Vladimir Putin of Russia and Hu Jintao of China have been negotiating with an impostor.

He believes that Kim, fearing assassination, had groomed up to four lookalikes to act as substitutes at public events. One underwent plastic surgery to make his appearance more convincing. Now, the expert claims, the actors are brought on stage whenever required to persuade the masses that Kim is alive.

The author has been derided by rival analysts of the hermetic communist state. Yet so few facts are known about North Korea’s ruling dynasty that some of the strange things reported in Professor Toshimitsu Shigemura’s bestselling book cannot be readily explained.

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“Scholars don’t trust my reasoning but intelligence people see the possibility that it will turn out to be accurate,” he said. “I have identified and pinned down every source.”

The book, The True Character of Kim Jong-il, cites sources from inside North Korea and from the intelligence services of Japan and South Korea.

One of its principal claims is that a voiceprint analysis of Kim’s speech at a 2004 meeting with Junichiro Koizumi, then the Japanese prime minister, did not match an authenticated earlier recording.

His book traces Kim’s supposed demise to autumn 2003 when he vanished for about 42 days. Most analysts put this down to mourning for one of his wives, a power struggle inside the Kim dynasty or fear of an American strike.

Kim’s poor health has been the subject of speculation for decades. The professor’s contribution is to cite Russian and Chinese sources saying he had diabetes and illnesses of the heart, liver and lungs, with depression thrown in.

There have been persistent reports that a stand-in appears for Kim at military parades and he is notoriously reclusive. He did not appear in public to receive the Olympic torch in Pyongyang on April 28.

The professor argues that no substantive policy decisions have been taken since North Korea joined nuclear disarmament talks in 2003.

South Korean analysts who attended two summits with Kim (before and after his supposed death) reported that he had indeed changed appearance. But that was because he had lost weight, quit smoking, given up cognac in favour of red bordeaux and coaxed the rest of the politburo onto a health kick.

Has anyone ever seen 'Moon Over Parador' with Richard Dryfus? I wonder where Hollywood keeps getting these silly ideas?

Oh man, Japan Today... this post probably was the cause of the earth quake that destroyed their nuclear facilities... Kim jon-il (still alive) + nuke + underwater tunnel = current japan.