A Kim Jong-un doppelganger with a strong Australian accent who identified himself as the supreme leader of North Korea gate crashed and mocked an election campaign event attended by prime minister Scott Morrison on Friday.
Australia is slated for federal elections on 21 May in which Mr Morrison is seeking a fourth successive three-year term.
On Friday, he was visiting a manufacturing business in the electorate of Chisholm in Melbourne, held by Gladys Liu, a local member of his Liberal party.
The man who crashed the event is a well-known comedian who goes by the pseudonym Howard X. Cashing in on his uncanny resemblance to the North Korean leader, he claims to be the world’s first full-time professional Kim Jong-un impersonator and has made headlines for stunts in the past, including being deported from Vietnam.
Wearing a Mao-style striped suit, horn-rimmed glasses and sporting Mr Kim’s trademark high-cut hairstyle, the Chinese-Australian comedian, whose real name is Lee Howard Ho Wun, could be seen in a video sarcastically announcing his intention to support Ms Liu.
He dodged security and began to address the media, when Nick Creevey, the prime minister’s aide, asked him to leave.
But the comedian shot back and chided the aide: “Excuse me, you don’t tell the supreme leader what to do. I support Gladys Liu.”
He claimed a vote for Ms Liu was a vote for communism, claiming she supports China’s president. Ms Liu has made headlines in the past for refusing to condemn China’s expansionist policies in the South China Sea.
“The point of coming here is pretty obvious, to show my support for the communist candidate for Australia, Gladys Liu,” he told reporters.
“I support Gladys Liu, she supports Xi Jinping. If you want to support communism in Australia, vote Liberal,” he added.
Mr Creevey said the incident was “the most offensive thing I have ever seen in a campaign”.
Ms Liu, who is running again from Chisolm, refuted the incident as “grubby tactics” by opponents and said she was focused on delivering outcomes for the Melbourne communities she represents.
“I will not be distracted by my opponents and their grubby tactics,” said Ms Liu, who was born in Hong Kong but has lived in Australia for 30 years.
The disruption appeared to have been orchestrated by Queensland state senate candidate Drew Pavlou, who tweeted saying it was “our wonderful pressure campaign” against Ms Liu.
He said he was good friends with the impersonator and that it was “one of the best things we have ever managed”. The impersonator was later questioned by the police.
Howard X had earlier been detained by Singapore’s police officials in 2018 after he went to the country for a historic summit between the North Korean leader and former US president Donald Trump.
Mr Pavlou has previously alleged Ms Liu had ties with Mr Xi as well.
Ties between China and Australia are on a downward spiral, most recently over a security pact that China signed with the Solomon Islands, which has been denounced by Canberra for allowing an outside power a strategic foothold in the region.
