Kim Jong Il Using Actors as Double?

A report that says Kim Jong Il, the leader of North Korea, hires substitute actors who look very much like him has received much attention around the world. Yonhap News quoted a figure from South Korea as saying, “Kim Jong Il employs two actors who are very similar to himself.” This figure said, “Kim hires people who has the similar age, height and appearance to him, and then trains them as he likes to send to public places.”

“The substitute actors get plastic surgery to make their appearances similar to Kim, and try to imitate Kim’s behaviors (so as to be estimated to resemble Kim). Even Kim’s attendants cannot realize they are fakes,” he added.

He explains, “Kim Jong Il takes part in important occasions himself, but he sends his substitutes to on-site inspections, such as visits to squads or farms.” United Press International and British newspapers including the Telegraph were also interested in this news and reported it.

It is common for politicians to use substitutes. Japanese used so-called Kakemusha (a shadowing knight) frequently to avoid assassinations in the age of civil wars. And it is known that Muammar al-Gaddafi, the leader of Libya, and Saddam Hussein, the former President of Iraq, who both were chased by the U.S. till a few years ago, also used substitutes.

Is it true that Kim Jong Il employs substitutes? Some figures from the field of culture and art in North Korea and North Korean defectors Dong-A Ilbo met in the past gave some evidence related to this question.

Words of a figure A, who is from the field of culture and art:

“There are three actors who played the youth of Kim Il Sung in North Korea. But there is no official actor who plays Kim Jung Il. It was the first time to try to use Kim’s substitute in the movie called “a big heart,” which was about the construction process of Nappo floodgate in 1988. The high-level executives in the movie industry who were good at flattering had hired an actor without Kim’s knowing and had trained him for two years to play in the movie. The problem happened at the premiere. Kim Jong Il was the first audience as always. When Kim saw the scene which used his substitute, he asked, ‘Is this scene from a documentary?’ He could not even recognize his own substitute.”

Words of a figure B, who is from Pyongyang:

“It happened in front of Chang-gwang-won, which is considered the best spa in Pyongyang in winter 1991. Only when you get in line from the early morning, you can get a ticket to go in. People who were in the line that day saw Kim Jong Il getting out of the limousine in the dark. Everybody ran to him, shouting, ‘Long live the General!’ Kim, who was just getting out of the car, hurriedly got it in again. The rumor spread in Pyongyang that day that the General made an on-site inspection to Chang-gwang-won this morning. However the next day, the rumor was that it was in fact his substitute who visited Chang-gwang-won.”

Words of a figure C, who saw Kim Jong Il:

“There was Kim Jong Il’s on-site inspection to our squad in the early 2000. I had a chance to meet him. One of executives made us gathered before the occasion and warned us that we could not talk to the General nor reach our hands to him. We stood at attention and only watched Kim passing us with wearing sunglasses. We used to shout ‘Long live the General’ and to shake hands with him. I could not hear any word from Kim Jong Il at that time, but the newspapers introduced Kim’s “words” on two pages a few days later from that day. I whispered with my close colleagues, “Wasn’t it the fake General who visited our squad?” And there are many people who think just like me.”

zsh75@donga.com