N Korea’s Kim died in 2003; replaced by lookalike, says Waseda professor
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.
Of course it’s fantastic—but in North Korea, says Shigemura, fantasy and reality are not mutually exclusive. “Japanese common sense cannot take the measure of North Korea’s uniqueness,” he writes. “For example: Kim came to Tokyo six times in the 1980s.”
Then as now, North Korea and Japan had no diplomatic ties. Kim, then heir to the throne under his father, “Great Leader” Kim Il Sung, apparently traveled incognito by ship. His purpose: to take in the magic shows staged by magician Hikita Tenko at the upscale Cordon Bleu show pub in Akasaka.
Shigemura cites as sources (without naming them) several people close to Kim’s family. He hears from them that Kim’s diabetes took a turn for the worse early in 2000. From then until his supposed death three and a half years later he was confined to a wheelchair.
Was the flurry of diplomatic activity in which the world saw Kim engaged during those years mere sleight of hand? The “hermit kingdom” seemed all of a sudden to grow remarkably outgoing. In June 2000 Kim hosted the historic summit with South Korean President Kim Dae Jung. The following month, he received Russian President Vladimir Putin. In October his guest was U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. In January 2001 he visited China; in August, Russia. In September 2002 there occurred the first summit with Koizumi, culminating in Kim’s admission, after decades of denial from Pyongyang, that North Korean agents had kidnapped Japanese nationals. August 2003 saw the launch of the Six Party talks aimed at North Korea’s nuclear disarmament.
“Then suddenly,” writes Shigemura in Shukan Gendai, “the pace slows.”
The second Kim-Koizumi summit, in 2004, lasted all of 90 minutes. Scheduled meetings with other foreign dignitaries were abruptly canceled. Kim’s retreat from the public eye was almost total. State television in October 2003 showed him touring a collective farm, but mention of the date of the visit was conspicuously absent.
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!
“Recently,” Shigemura proceeds, “someone who was in contact with a Kim family member told me he heard the family member say, ‘There’s been a promise not to decide on Kim’s successor so long as the current shogun is alive.’”
“‘Shogun’ was Kim’s nickname,” Shigemura explains “If Kim were alive, the family member would simply have said, ‘the shogun’—not ‘the current shogun.’ The stress on ‘current’ seems to suggest that the person in question is someone other than Kim Jong Il.”
Shukan Gendai asks a government official who helped plan Koizumi’s Pyongyang visits what he thinks of all this. His reply:
“Rumors of a dummy Kim began circulating after the summit. Some of us said we should have Kim’s voice prints analyzed. But if we did that and proved the prime minister had been conferring with a double, it could have destroyed the Koizumi administration. So we didn’t proceed.”
KPA Artillery Company Inspected
Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission and supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army, inspected an artillery company of KPA Unit 205 honoured with the title of O Jung Hup-led Seventh Regiment.
After seeing the soldiers under firepower training, he expressed satisfaction over the fact that the servicepersons of the company have grown up to be a-match-for-a-hundred fighters, and are performing their noble mission and duty to the motherland and revolution with credit in the general advance for Songun revolution.
He dropped in at the room for military lecture to learn about the state of training.
He then made the rounds of the education room, bedroom, mess hall, bathroom, animal shed and other places, taking deep care of the soldiers in and out of their service.
He met the soldiers of the company and gave them a pep talk, before posing for a photo with them.
KPA Unit 3898 for Training Recruits Inspected
Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission and supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army, inspected KPA Unit 3898 for training recruits.
After acquainting himself with the state of implementation of the education programme, he saw the recruits under training.
He expressed satisfaction over the fact that the unit is conducting several kinds of substantial training to prepare the recruits as soldiers well versed in military regulations and with strong physique in a short period of time.
He made the rounds of the educational facilities including the soldiers’ hall and education room to learn in detail about the political work for them.
Expressing great satisfaction over the fact that the unit is training the recruits into soldiers strong in ideology and faith by using diverse kinds of education materials it has made for fresh revolutionary education and class education so as to conduct brisk political work to suit their features, he set forth tasks to be tackled in conducting the ideological work in depth.
He also inspected the art course for recruits before going round the compound of the barracks to learn about the management of the unit.
He then dropped in at the bedroom, mess hall, kitchen, non-staple food store, processing room, welfare service centre and other supply service facilities.
He expressed his expectation and confidence that the recruits of the unit would display the heroic mettle of the Korean People’s Army to the full extent in the post of national defence, and posed for a photo with them.
KPA Unit 280 Inspected
Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission and supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army, inspected KPA Unit 280.
Guided by the commander of the unit, he looked round the room dedicated to its history. Noting that the unit has fully demonstrated the heroic mettle of the Korean People’s Army in the fight for national defence and socialist construction, he highly praised the glorious feats of the unit.
He dropped in at the room for military lecture to learn about the training of the commanding officers.
Expressing satisfaction over the fact that the unit is preparing all the officers to be combatants possessed of high ability with which to efficiently organize and command any difficult operational task of a modern warfare, he set forth tasks to be tackled in further boosting the combat efficiency of the unit.
After acquainting himself with the unit’s performance of duty and the state of preserving combat equipment, he praised the servicepersons of the unit for not only performing their combat duty with vigilance, keeping close watch on every movement of the enemy, but also taking good care of their weapons of revolution like the apples of their eyes.
He made the rounds of the soldiers’ hall, library and other cultural and educational facilities to learn about the political work for the soldiers.
He then went round the bedroom, mess hall, bathroom, non-staple food store and other supply service facilities with deep care of the soldiers’ living.
He also enjoyed an art performance given by the soldiers of a company under the unit.
After the performance he expressed great satisfaction over the fact that the soldiers of the company are living a revolutionary life full of joy and happiness, and spoke highly of their successful performance.
He expressed his expectation and confidence that the servicepersons of the unit would perform with credit their mission and duty as standard-bearers and shock-brigade members in supporting Songun politics of the WPK, and posed for a photo with them.
KPA Unit 895 Inspected
Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission and supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army, inspected KPA Unit 895 honoured with the title of O Jung Hup-led Seventh Regiment.
After seeing the soldiers under training, he expressed satisfaction over the fact that the servicepersons of the unit are preparing themselves to be a-match-for-a-hundred combatants and set forth tasks to be tackled in boosting the unit’s combat capability.
He made the rounds of the soldiers’ hall, library and other cultural and educational facilities to learn in detail about the political work for the soldiers, and praised the unit for training them into heroes of the new century.
Going round the compound of the barracks surrounded by thick woods, he expressed great satisfaction over the fact that the servicepersons of the unit have covered the compound with trees and flowers and spoke highly of their merits.
He then looked round the education room, bedroom, mess hall, bathroom, non-staple food store and other places with deep care of the soldiers in and out of service.
Expressing his expectation and confidence that the servicepersons of the unit would perform brilliant exploits in the sacred fight for national defence with the weapons of the revolution firmly in their hands, he gave them a pair of binoculars, a machine gun and an automatic rifle as gifts and posed for a photo with them.
Field Guidance to Agricultural Sector in North Phyongan Province
Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea and chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission, gave field guidance to the Unhung Cooperative Farm in Thaechon County where the Handre Plain, one of the nine sceneries of Songun, is located.
He mounted the gazebo to have a bird’s-eye view of the farm with a new appearance, and expressed great satisfaction over the fact that the village has undergone great changes.
It is an admirable achievement that the officials and working people of the farm have turned the village into a paradise of the era of the WPK, socialist fairyland, he said, and spoke highly of them.
And then he learned in detail about the farming for this year, and said that the farm should become a model for the country in the grain production by working in accordance with the requirements of the Juche farming method, before setting forth tasks and ways to the end. He met and had talks with a farmer Om Jong Sil in the field.
He also visited the Phyongbuk Pig Farm newly built in the province.
After being briefed on the farm in front of the panoramic map, he looked the interior and outside of the farm to acquaint himself in detail with the construction and management.
Greatly satisfied over the fact that the province has built up a large-capacity modern pig farm by relying on its local forces, he highly praised the merits of the builders and presented tasks for the farm.
He visited the Thaechon Youth Rabbit-Breeding Ground.
He made the rounds of the reconstructed hutch and other places to learn in detail about the production. He said that it is important in raising rabbits to establish a system of breeding and supply of superior rabbits, take measures for feeding and prevention of epidemic diseases and properly solve the scientific and technological problems, and set forth tasks and ways to this end.
On the same day he learned about the brisk afforestation work in the province.
He praised the determination of the people in the province to open the gate to a great, prosperous and powerful country before anybody else, and expressed his confidence that the province would perform the leading role in the agricultural production, too.
Field Guidance to Several Units in Kanggye
Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea and chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission, gave field guidance to several units in Kanggye.
The first leg of his guidance trip was the Kanggye Post Office, a revolutionary site.
Greatly satisfied over the fact that the employees of the management office of the revolutionary site are preserving well the precious relics, the valuable assets of the Korean revolution, and conducting effective education with them, he expressed his expectation and confidence that they would perform with credit their honourable duty of arming the servicepersons and people with the revolutionary idea of President Kim Il Sung more thoroughly by improving the education there.
The next leg of his guidance was the Jagang Provincial Institute of Forest Science and the experimental nursery of the Jagang Provincial Industrial Forest Office.
He acquainted himself in detail with scientific researches and cultivation of saplings, making the rounds of the exterior and interior of the institute and nursery including an arboretum, room for tissue culture and experimental nursery.
He expressed great satisfaction over the fact that the scientists, technicians and workers there have set up the modern base for scientific research and experimental nursery in a short period of time with a single mind of building a great, prosperous and powerful country as early as possible.
Noting that afforestation is of weighty importance in increasing the nation’s forest resources and making the landscape beautiful, he put forward tasks for the institute and the nursery.
Then he visited the Kanggye Foodstuff Factory.
He was briefed on the factory at the room dedicated to its history, and went round the production lines to learn in detail about the technical equipment and production.
Expressing great satisfaction over the fact that the factory has brought about a radical turn in the production, he praised the officials and workers in Kanggye for having built the excellent foodstuff factory equipped with the production lines which meet the scientific and technological requirements, after modernizing the essential foodstuff factory.
Referring to the need for the factory to spruce itself up as a model and keep the production at a high level so as to positively contribute to the livelihood of the citizens, he set forth tasks for the factory.
He also visited the Kanggye Unha Clothing Factory.
Making the rounds of the workshops, he expressed great satisfaction over the fact that the workers of the factory have been making great contributions to the improvement of the people’s livelihood by mass-producing quality clothes which suit the tastes of the Korean people and have changed the appearance of the factory in a few years.
Noting that clothing is important in solving the problems of clothing, food and housing, he expressed his expectation and confidence that the workers of the factory would bring about a great turn in the production of consumer goods for the people.
He then visited the Kanggye Chicken Giblets Soup Restaurant on the bank of the picturesque Jangja River.
He looked round the exterior and interior of the restaurant, saw various dishes of chicken giblets and learned in detail about the management of the restaurant.
He expressed great satisfaction over the fact that the officials in Kanggye and the employees of the restaurant have furnished the restaurant with good equipment and are serving the workers and other citizens with special quality dishes of chicken giblets in the spirit of devotedly serving the people, and spoke highly of their merits.
He then climbed the balcony of the restaurant to have a bird’s-eye view of Kanggye, a paradise by the billowy Jangja and Pukchon rivers.
He expressed his expectation and confidence that the officials and other Party members and working people in the province including Kanggye would continue to admirably play the vanguard role in the general advance for building a great, prosperous and powerful nation by giving fuller play to the Kanggye spirit.
du pain du pain… et autre chose…
“à manger ! à manger !” s’écrient les autres !
