Huffington Post: “Kim Jung-un” Pays a Visit to Hong Kong Protests, 2.11.14


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Huffington Post tom grundy occupy hong kong

The main Umbrella Movement ‘Occupy’ site in Hong Kong received an unusual visitor, on Friday, in the form of a Kim Jong-Un impersonator.

The sinister Kim-a-like is actually a 35-year-old local musician named Howard. The Australian Hong Konger is gifted – or perhaps cursed – with a striking resemblance to the North Korean dictator.

“Kim” said that Beijing’s proposal for Hong Kong’s 2017 elections is “not much different from the system in North Korea or Iran.”

He noted how his ‘subjects’ in North Korea also have one-person-one-vote, though with only one pre-chosen candidate. The system Beijing has planned for Hong Kong allows for only two or three pre-approved candidates to stand.

Hounded by onlookers demanding ‘selfies’, “Kim” toured the ‘Occupy’ site on Friday – just in time for Halloween.

Pro-democracy protesters have been gathered near government headquarters in Hong Kong for over a month. Demonstrators, led by students, have been demanding full universal suffrage from Beijing and calling upon the city’s leader, Leung Chun-Ying, to step down.

‘Howard’ is thought to be the world’s first Kim Jong-Un impersonator. His services are available for weddings, bah mitzvahs, funerals or you can hire him to entertain your party guests or scare small children. (See his Facebook page here.)

He is not the first to compare Beijing’s election proposal for Hong Kong to the situation in the ‘Hermit Kingdom’. Hong Kong’s Labour Party and democratic politicians such as Claudia Mo have also likened the election plan to the authoritarian system of North Korea.