The photo carried by TV Asahi (top left) and the photo of a South Korean identified as Bae posted on a Daum chatroom (top right)

A purported recent photo of Kim Jong-un, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's third son and heir apparent, that was shown on TV in both South Korea and Japan is of someone else entirely.

Japan's TV Asahi on Wednesday claimed it had an exclusive possession of a photo of Kim junior, but research by Chosun.com shows that the photo is not of Kim junior but of a South Korean man who resembles Kim Jong-il.

Around noon, TV Asahi during a news flash showed the photo, which it claimed it had obtained on its own from a source. The man in the photo looks a lot like Kim Jong-il in his younger days. The channel did not say how it obtained the photo.

But following South Korean media reports, buzz on the Internet said the photo was a fake. Chosun.com then found that the photo was of a South Korean man who operates a cyber cafe on Internet portal Daum. The man himself posted the photo alongside a picture of Kim Jong-il's online in February, saying people often commented on how alike the two look.

Bombarded with questions from the South Korean press, TV Asahi claimed it obtained the photo from a person who seems to have some connections with North Korea. It said it decided to report it after asking North Korea experts to check it and hearing from them that the man in the photo could be Kim Jong-un.

The cyber cafe operator, identified by his surname Bae (40), told reporters, "It's sheer nonsense. I never expected such a thing to happen."