DeepEnigma
Gold Member
Think the world is a strange and confusing place just now? Well, belt yourself in for this, because loads of people online reckon that North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un has been using a body double at a recent engagement.
Right, let's just start at the beginning of this bizarre story, shall we?
Basically, there have been a lot of rumours floating around in recent times that have questioned why we hadn't heard anything from Kim Jong-Un, or seen him recently.
Completely putting aside the fact that the man is the leader of the world's most reclusive nation, it does seem a little unusual that the 36-year-old leader would be so conspicuously absent.
However, he appeared once again in a set of videos and photographs published by the North Korean state-run media last week, as if to deliberately dissuade the rumours of his demise.
This move hasn't exactly stopped the speculation, though. Loads of people reckon that they used someone who just looks a load like him instead of the real Kim.
The rumours themselves are pretty weird.
Some have said that Kim's failure to appear at the birthday celebrations of North Korea's founder Kim Il Sung was down to the fact that he is in a vegetative state after a botched heart surgery, and others say that he's just straight-up dead.
Whilst the media in the country reported on his activities, people started to notice that there were no pictures accompanying these reports.
That prompted people to notice, when some photos were finally announced, that something wasn't quite right about the guy in the pictures.
They reckon that he's got a different face, his hairline isn't the same, and his teeth aren't identical to the 'real' Kim.
Human rights activist Jennifer Zeng got in early, pointing out: "Is the Kim Jong-un appearing on May 1 the real one?,"
She then shared two pictures of the Supreme Leader, one from the latest engagement, and the other from before.
Another person agreed, tweeting: "Have y'all seen the latest pics of Kim Jong Un? He looks slightly different,
"My theory is either that he died and was replaced by a clone/lookalike, or was out of the public eye for so long [because] he was recovering from plastic surgery."
They continued: "His nose seems a little bit more rounded, his hairline looks wider, and he used to have WAY more wrinkles around the eyes when he smiled,
"The hairline may just be receding or a fresh new haircut, but the smoother eyes and slightly different nose have me questioning things."
So, this isn't so outlandish, it turns out. In fact, he's known to use body doubles. In 2017, footage emerged that showed him chatting to a few of them, decked out in the same clothing.
That being said, we don't know if this was one, and we know even less about what that actually means for the life of the real Kim.