Kim impersonator fools Indian tourist, locals in Singapore

SINGAPORE: Surprised Singaporeans pursued North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Sunday before realising the portly man near the Marina Bay Sands hotel was an impersonator.

“It looked like the real Kim Jong Un, but later I realised it’s not the real one,” said Sagar Admuthe who was visiting from Mumbai, India, after several selfies with the doppleganger against a backdrop of the city’s bay.

“When you see him, it’s very difficult to make out.”

The Australian-chinese man posing as the North Korean leader calls himself only Howard X and said he was appearing to wish success for a summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump to negotiate an end to the North’s nuclear programme.

Howard X also made an appearance as Kim at the Winter Olympics in Gangneung in South Korea in February, bewildering North Korean cheerleaders who initially thought their leader had walked into a hockey stadium.

Howard X said Kim’s rise as the third leader of North Korea in 2011 has proved lucrative for him, jump starting a new career in films, commercials and private functions, most often in his home town of Hong Kong.

“I said that guy looks a lot like me, and I thought, wow, I need to do something with this and make some money,” Howard X added.

“This is my normal body,” he said, when asked if he had to put on weight to impersonate the North’s leader. “But he’s fatter, and I can’t catch up ... it’ll damage my health.”