Kim Jong Il dead since 2003

[calintz]

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=627370

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has been dead for years and replaced by a number of look-alikes, a Japanese academic claims.

North Korea expert Professor Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor of international relations, says Kim died of diabetes in 2003 and has been substituted by up to four body doubles ever since.

Driven by a fear of assassination, Kim allegedly trained his doppelgangers — one of whom underwent plastic surgery — to attend public appearances.

"Scholars don’t trust my reasoning but intelligence people see the possibility that it will turn out to be accurate," Fox News reported Professor Shigemura as saying.

"I have identified and pinned down every source."

Kim, 66, has not appeared in public for three weeks amid rumours he is seriously unwell.

While Seoul intelligence officials have said they believe he has diabetes and heart problems, they do not think he is near death.

But Professor Shigemura, from Tokyo's respected Waseda University, believes that Kim actually died sometime during a 42-day absence from public in September 2003.

He claims that whenever anyone is granted a face-to-face meeting with today's Kim, a senior official is always by his side "like a puppet master".

Professor Shigemura's claims, outlined in his book The True Character of Kim Jong-il, have been disputed by North Korean officials.

One of Kim Jong Il's 'doubles' in 2008 (left), and the 'real' Kim in 2003.

[Hidoshi]

That's actually mildly feasible with a government like the DPRK. :\ What can I say? Not like we get much news out of North Korea on the whole, considering how isolated it is as a country. Would be interesting, were this  true.

[Azrael]

I don't really believe it.  They don't have any reason to hide Kim Jong Il being dead unless they have no successor lined up.  It's not like he is the only one behind the current state of the country so I don't really buy this.

[Hidoshi]

He is a hilarious scapegoat. Do you EVER hear about the rest of the DPRK government taking heat for the state of the country? Nope. Kim gets all the flak.

[Logick]

I don't really believe it.  They don't have any reason to hide Kim Jong Il being dead unless they have no successor lined up.  It's not like he is the only one behind the current state of the country so I don't really buy this.

That the thing, his eldest son has been disowned by him(he was caught trying to sneak into japan).  And his next oldest son is only 27 supposedly living somewhere in europe, it seems like there is no decent successor. 

[MeshGearFox]

They don't have any reason to hide Kim Jong Il being dead

Do you EVER hear about the rest of the DPRK government taking heat for the state of the country? Nope. Kim gets all the flak.

Doink.

[dalucifer0]

I thought he was a cockroach living inside a Korean body. >.>

[Ryos]

I don't really believe it.  They don't have any reason to hide Kim Jong Il being dead unless they have no successor lined up.  It's not like he is the only one behind the current state of the country so I don't really buy this.

I would have said it was an absurd theory when I first looked at the story, but then Kim Jong Il is absurd and with as screwed up as he made the country (while sure there ARE other people who've messed up North Korea, a lot of it has to do with his incompetent policies, which have more or less highlighted the danger inherent in Communism when abused), I wouldn't be terribly surprised if some fake were ruling in his stead.  Anarchy is almost a given when there's a bad transition of power, and frankly NK isn't in a stable situation, to say the least. 

Of course, since the theory rose up from a Japanese source, that leads to an easy way to dispute the possibility anyway. :P