Did two generations of North Korean leaders once enjoy a father-son holiday in Hong Kong?
Well, possibly.
An exclusive Reuters report today revealed photocopies of “fraudulently obtained” Brazilian passports used by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his late father Kim Jong Il to apply for visas in Western countries.
Though it wasn’t established if visas were granted, the news agency spoke to five security sources, who said the travel documents — issued in the names of Josef Pwag (Jong Un) and Ijong Tchoi (Jong Il) — may have been used to travel to Brazil, Japan and Hong Kong.
The passports, Reuters reported, both carry a stamp saying “Embassy of Brazil in Prague” and have the same issue date of Feb. 26, 1996.
As such, both expire in February 2006. You know what that means don’t you?
This would have given the pair about six months to use the documents for a trip to Hong Kong Disneyland, which opened in September 2005.
Though Coconuts has no proof per say of the Kims going to the city’s Magical Kingdom, Kim Jong-un certainly looks like someone who would want to go to Disneyland, often seen, as he is, clapping and cheering like a spoilt tubby child while his people starve and his authoritarian state threatens the world with nuclear weapons.
Little is known about the current leader’s exact age, so the document’s date of birth Feb 1. 1983 — which would make him 35-years-old — is disputed.
What is apparent is that he’s always have a massive baby face, as a comparison between his teenage passport pic and recent personality-cult-promoting propaganda shots shows few signs of ageing, though suggests a healthy amount of eating.
His late father’s Brazilian passport, meanwhile, records his birth date as April 4, 1940 though Jung Ill, who died in 2011 after ruling the country for 17 years, was actually born in 1941.
Both the men were certainly not born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, as the passports state.
One source speaking to Reuters, said the travel documents showed the ruling family’s desire to travel and points to their attempts to build a possible escape route.
Maybe the pair just wanted to meet new people. Kim Jong-il, it has been said, was lonely.
