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Kim Jong Un impersonator kicked out of Olympics hockey game

A Kim Jong Un impersonator, calling himself only Howard from Australia, holds a unification flag while attending the Korea-Japan women’s ice hockey game at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea on Wednesday. (AP)
A Kim Jong Un impersonator, calling himself only Howard from Australia, holds a unification flag while attending the Korea-Japan women’s ice hockey game at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea on Wednesday. (AP)

He says to call him “Howard,” but the Australian man who is a professional Kim Jong Un impersonator is making waves in PyeongChang – and not always in a good way.

Howard, who as you’d expect looks quite a bit like the North Korean dictator, went to the ice rink on Wednesday, where the women’s combined team representing South Korea and North Korea played Japan.

The North Korean cheerleaders were apparently not quite sure what to make of Howard, with some of them giggling when they saw him – before he was escorted out of the rink.

Howard chatted with “Sunrise,” an Australian morning show, about why he’s decided to make appearances in PyeongChang despite the heightened climate of unrest on the Korean peninsula.

“Today I attended a hockey game, and unfortunately, they did not have a sense of humor,” Howard told the hosts.

“No, because South Korea is a democracy and has freedom of speech,” he said when asked if he was afraid to go to South Korea. “It’s very important to remind the whole world that you can’t let North Korea highjack these games. We’ve got to remind people that this is a terrible regime, and as an Aussie, I need to take the piss out of them.”

Howard wasn’t a fan of being escorted out of the rink – guards were rough, he said – but he did like the cheerleaders.

“They were beautiful, and I wouldn’t mind taking a few of them home,” he said. “A few of them laughed and thought it was pretty funny – who did not find it funny were the minders. When they come to South Korea, athough it is a free country, they have minders that keep them in check, they cannot misbehave and cannot see the real South Korea.

“So I decided to turn up as Supreme Leader, just to see what their reaction was.”