Winter Olympics: Kim Jong Un impersonator is Australian named Howard

Australian Kim Jong-un impersonator Howard says he is attending the Winter Olympics to take 'the piss out of' the North Korean regime.

Screenshot of North Korean leader impersonator on Sunrise, Feb. 15th 2018.

The North Korean leader Kim Jong-un lookalike on Channel 7's sunrise program. Source: Seven Network

A Kim Jong Un impersonator making headlines around the world for his various appearances at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics is an Australian man named Howard.

The Melbourne-born man, who has Chinese heritage, is a professional impersonator and satirist.

A group of North Korean cheerleaders were briefly wowed on Wednesday by the apparent sudden arrival of their leader, Kim Jong-un, at a Winter Olympics ice hockey game.

Howard told Channel 7's Sunrise "the cheerleaders were shocked and surprised and some of them even laughed".

But he noted some of the North Korean minders did not find it funny.



"Unfortunately, they did not have a sense of humour," Howard said.

According to Reuters, he was briefly detained inside a police office during Wednesday's match then "politely asked" to leave.

Howard posted the video on his Facebook page.

Impersonators dressed as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald J. Trump attend the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Olympics in PyeongChang, Gangwon Province, South Korea, on 09 February 2018.
File image of impersonators of theNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and US President Donald Trump. Source: EPA/YONHAP SOUTH KOREA OUT


He had also caused a commotion during last Friday's opening ceremony when he and a person dressed as US President Donald Trump were swiftly shown out of the stadium by security staff.

Howard told Sunrise he had been a professional impersonator of the leader since 2013. 

"I'm here to send up the whole situation with North Korea and South Korea and everything that has to do with that," he said.



Asked about whether it was dangerous to impersonate the North Korean leader, he said "you can't let North Korea hijack these games using these leaders and everything that they put out". 

"It's a terrible regime and I need to take the piss out of it," Howard said.

In North Korea, a person impersonating a member of the Kim family would be considered blasphemous.

Images of the North Korean leadership are tightly choreographed and controlled by the reclusive nation's state propagandists.

But Howard noted South Korea does not have such rules.


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By Samantha Beniac-Brooks


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Winter Olympics: Kim Jong Un impersonator is Australian named Howard | SBS News