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09-11-03 10:05 AMAsia Times Online :: Korea News and Korean Business and Economy, Pyongyang NewsPage 1 of 4http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/KJ31Dg02.html
 
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Oct 31, 2009
Doubles, toil and trouble in Pyongyang
By Donald KirkSEOUL - The next time somebig-time foreign visitor calls onKim Jong-il in Pyongyang, heshould probably bring some nasty little gizmo for checking DNA.And the people with him shouldbe taking photographs and voiceprints with tiny thumb-nail-sized cameras and recorders tucked awayin their coatlapels and tie clips.Probably nothing short of the most sophisticated equipment imaginable is going to settle the issue for sure.Somehow the world has got to know, is this guy Kim Jong-il or is he not Kim  Jong-il? Until then, the debate is sure to rage with the ultimatequestion unanswered, "Is God dead?"God, that is, in thepersonof the Dear Leader, Kim Jong-il, whotogether with his father, theGreat Leader , assumes god-likestature inNorth Koreain aholy trinitythat would also include the Dear Leader's saintedmother , Kim Jung-sook.No self-respecting Korean expert wants to seem too far out onthe subject, but then again how else will anyone really be able todisprove the claims of the Japanese  journalistand academician, Toshimitsu Shigemura. He's been writing for years that KimJong-il cannot accurately be described as on his last legs. He'sbed-ridden, unable to walk at all, Shigemura insisted yet again ina conversation with me this week - that is, if he's not alreadyhistory.Shigemura's thesis about a Kim Jong-il look-alike, or two or three look-alikes, goes back to the 1990s when he swears aJapanese magician, Princess Tenko, entertained the Dear Leader on secret trips to Tokyo at a swanky nightclub in thecity's Akasaka district and then was twice invited to see him inKorean summit notsuch a sick idea
Oct 23, '09
 Seeing doubles inDear Leader 's no-show
Sep 10, 2008
 
 
09-11-03 10:05 AMAsia Times Online :: Korea News and Korean Business and Economy, Pyongyang NewsPage 2 of 4http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/KJ31Dg02.html
Pyongyang."Kim Jong-il appeared on awheelchair ," Shigemura said in arecent lecture in Portland, Oregon. The attentive magician askeda son and daughter of the Dear Leader - it's not clear whichones - to call her when he appeared near death, as Shigemuratold the story. "They called her cellular phone at the beginning of 2003."Shigemura, a correspondent for 30 years with the Japanesenewspaper Mainichi Shimbun and now a professor of international relationsat Waseda University in Tokyo, isundeterred by suggestions that perhaps the story is a littleoutdated.Has Kim Jong-il not proven his existence by hosting former USpresident Bill Clinton for more than three hours in early August?And what about his subsequent meetings with the chairwomanof Hyundai Asan, the company responsible for developing theKaesong Industrial Complex and the Kumkang tourist zone?Most convincingly, could anyone doubt his authenticity after those sessions with China's Premier Wen Jiabao in earlyOctober?Shigemura laughs politely at the notion that anyone shouldseriously take what he clearly views as scams at face value."The Kim Jong-il who saw President Clinton is totally different,"he observed, from the sickly looking one who appeared beforethe Supreme People's Assembly after North Korea had test-fireda long-range Taepodong-2 missile in early April. "He lookedvery healthy."A skilled actor, Shigemura believes, could easily have rehearsedwhat to say and gotten off all the rightlines for the benefit of Clinton and the aides and advisers who accompanied him. Butcould Hyun and Wen, both of whom had met him before, be soeasily fooled? Certainly, said Shigemura, especially since theKim Jong-il they had met previously may well have been thesame actor.Intriguing though Shigemura's theories may sound, they're lessthan convincing to most observers. There seems to be littlequestion, however, that Kim Jong-il does have a double, or maybe a few of them, to cover for him on all those trips hemakes to farms and factories, army bases and art exhibits. Howelse could one man, an ailing one at that, really have gone onmore than 120 such excursions reported so far this year?Kim Jong-il started going on all those trips several months after he reportedly had suffered a stroke in August 2008, as reportedby Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency. The real questioneveryone was asking initially was whether North Korean photoeditors doctored the photographs, showing earlier pictures of Kim Jong-il, or whether he had a double sitting in for him.Shigemura believes careful study of the photographs leaves nodoubt of a double. The fact that dictators everywhere seem tolike to doubles as protection against assassination attemptslends weight to this view."These dictators always need look-alikes for security reasons,"said Choi Jin-wook, senior North Korean specialist at the KoreaInstitute of National Unification. In any case, he observed, "KimJong-il has been doing on-the-spot guidance too often for hishealth."Kim Tae-woo at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses takesa measured view. "There have been such rumors," he said. "Wedon't know whether this is real or fake." As an obviousprecedent, however, he cited the example of the late Iraqipresident, Saddam Hussein, who often sent a double for appearances around Baghdad before the US invasion in 2003.North Korean defectors have been spreading stories of late thatseem to support the view that Kim Jong-il indeed has a double
 
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