Thursday, 09. February 2012

:: Home > General News > In the service of the dictator

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
30	31	1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	1	2	3	4

Add your event FREE

Today

Polls

19. 03. 10. - 11:00

In the service of the dictator

By Kathryn Quinn in Vienna

North Korean officials brought hundreds of thousands of dollars stuffed into suitcases into Austria to go on shopping sprees for their glorious leader while at the same time back home children were abandoned in the streets because families could not afford to feed them.

The true horror of life under North Korea's dictatorship is exposed in a new book published in German by a former highly decorated Korean colonel Kim Jong-Ryul, 75, who described how he was employed as a personal shopper to dictator Kim Jong-il for 20 years.

He told of buying luxury cars from Mercedes, sending over mechanics to make sure they could be properly maintained, and would learn how they worked, as well as private jets and expensive furniture to fill the dozens of palaces that he commissioned from architects and building firms in the West.� Teams of North Korean chefs were sent to Austria to learn their skills in the country's best hotels and restaurants and were ordered to make sure they purchased and brought back the finest ingredients so they could recreate the dishes on their return.

And he added that firms were not only happy to accept the top prices paid by North Korean officials but at the same time were paid up to 30 percent on top of every contract to guarantee that they kept quiet about the details of the luxury items they were passing on to the dictator and his family.

Kim Jong-Ryul explained how most of what he bought was personal items the dictator and his family wanted, from expensive artwork to luxury rugs through to the very best building materials for the palaces - although officially he was supposed to be a buyer for the North Korean government. He said the embargo was never an issue.

He explained how travelling in North Korea he would see the dire poverty.

He said: "I saw the huge factories that were once the driving force of our economy closed down so that workers could strip trees to provide fuel for power plants as we had no electricity. Children were abandoned in the streets by families who could no longer afford to feed them, while in other cases parents would starve themselves rather than see their children go hungry."

He explained that everybody in North Korea had to attend weekly brainwashing sessions, in specially set-aside rooms in all public buildings, where they would confess their sins. Those regarded as particularly controversial had to attend every three days and as well as denouncing themselves had to make sure they always denounced two friends.

He said: "we learned quickly not to make this seem too serious, otherwise you would be jailed. We would do things like accusing a friend of not praising the Great Leader enthusiastically enough - for which there would be an admonishment from the team leader. Another popular one was to confess to hitting your children, which would also result in just an admonishment."

He said he had learned to switch off any thoughts to himself and simply work like an automaton - but added: "what really hit me hardest and broke through all my defences and made me sick to my stomach was when I was in Austria and had been ordered to buy water filter systems and plumbing for the royal palaces. The country's water system and treatment network had broken down and thousands of people were dying from polluted water."

He added that Austrian firms had been at the top of the list in bidding for lucrative North Korean business.

And the list of items did not just include luxury goods. There was also a sinister shopping list to help with the repression back home. There were the usual gold-plated guns but also gas masks and gas detectors, various other detectors and telephone-tapping machinery, and James Bond-type gadgets - from rocket-powered rucksacks that would enable them to leap over walls through to monitors that could detect a heartbeat through a wall or underground hideaway. He even managed to buy fleets of tanks despite the embargo.

These were smuggled out under the guise of hunting equipment. But he added that Austrian firms were more than happy to guarantee that the business would go through.

His story is the subject of a new book published in Austria, where the colonel says he has lived under cover since his defection in 1994.

Colonel Kim Jong-Ryul says he spent 20 years doing business in Europe for the North Korean regime.

His story is told in a new book, At the Dictator's Service.

The book describes the deep divide between the lavish lifestyles of North Korea's leaders and the poverty of its people.

Colonel Kim says it was this injustice that led him to fake his own death in 1994 and defect to Austria.

Now he says he is risking his life by going public.

He fears that the North Korean secret services will hunt him down and hurt his family back in North Korea.

But he says he has no regrets about breaking his silence.

According to a UNICEF study, two-thirds of all children in North Korea are chronically undernourished and 15 percent are so thin that even the smallest infection would kill them instantly.

In his book, Kim tells how as a kid he used to drill holes into soy beans and fill them with the poison potassium cyanide for magpies to eat. If you then were not quick enough to empty the stomachs of the dead birds, you would die immediately when you ate them.

Kim made new shoes every few days because the rice plant mesh he used did not last. One day he found a car tyre by the road and cut out soles for new shoes. He was jubilant - they were the best shoes he had ever had.

In school, children would devote their time to pointless exercises such as learning classic North Korean songs like Kim Il Sung or Down with America, with the US being constantly blamed for the suffering North Koreans had to endure. At university 50 per cent of all lessons were devoted to studying the dictator Kim Il Sung. A North Korean child who knew of Charles Darwin was a rarity.

He said that when the country's motorways had any traffic, it could only ever mean one thing - that the fleet of limousines carrying the president and his family was on the move.

Farmers knew they had to stop work in the fields and stand to attention and salute. Women ordered to keep the otherwise empty motorways swept clean for the president had to sing songs in his praise.

In every room of every private house there had to be portraits of both Kim Il Sung and his son. Those who wanted to show particular devotion put photos over the entire surface of the wall. At the same time, the fist-sized swelling on the neck of the dictator that tortured him for 20 years was always removed from photographs. Any facial blemishes were also removed. Possession of such an unedited picture was punishable with jail. It would also be jail for anybody who folded a newspaper over the picture of the dictator. In every open space there had to be statues in his honour. It was also punishable with jail if local councils failed to make sure these monuments were not illuminated at all times.

In the interview, Kim said: "In North Korea there is no freedom at all. The people don�t even know what the word freedom means. No teacher ever speaks about democracy. Freedom and democracy are as old as humanity; nevertheless they are forbidden in North Korea."

He said: "No regular person in North Korea is allowed to have foreign currency. If a North Korean has dollars though, they can buy everything, all imaginable kinds of goods in so-called dollar shops that were common in the former socialist countries."

The dictator�s pretence for acquiring all these luxury items is that they are for foreigners.

In his book, Kim speaks about the son who is only one-and-a-half metres tall, and a teetotaler, according to official reports. In reality Kim was ordered to buy crates of the most expensive cognac for him. Hennessy was a favourite choice with North Korea spending $ 500,000 a year for it. His consumption of cognac got so great at one point that for medical reasons he was forced to switch to expensive French red wine - principally Bordeaux. A special research institute was created with only one aim - to make sure that he lived a long life. It worked on figuring out the best diet, down to making sure that every individual grain of rice was individually checked. The rice was always cooked over an open flame and specially shipped in from the holy Mount Paektu.

The son enjoyed fast cars and beautiful women. But even he was scared that his father might find out he partied until late every night - with dancers from Sweden and Russia flown in to make sure the celebrations went with a bang. He refused to wear suits because they made him look too small - ordering special shoes that increased his height to 1.6 metres.

And while imported products were banned for the general population, the shopper scoured the world for the best quality goods, from Belgian chocolates to plasma televisions to luxury yachts.

"In North Korea there are 10 provinces. They have a villa in each. I bought them here in Austria. They had golden windows, carpets and wallpaper made from silk."

At one point the dictator had suddenly decided his wonderful palaces and his life were at risk from earthquakes - and ordered the latest earthquake-monitoring technology from Germany. This was in 1976 after an earthquake killed 650,000 people in China.

Another example of the paranoia was the mass installation of Geiger counters after Kim Il Sung learnt of the invisible threat of radioactivity.

Kim Jong-ryul was chosen for the job because he had studied at a German university and was a fluent German speaker.

He said: "I often had help from the authorities in the Czech Republic and what was then East Germany. They were communist regimes as well and were able to provide false documents when needed."

Kim explained how he would use different business cards that would make him an expert in a given field. If he was buying machinery, he was an engineer, when buying earthquake monitors, the cards portrayed him as a seismologist.

His most common statement was that money was not an object - the quickest way to get past any obstacles - and all payments were made in cash.

When he was summoned to official visits to get his shopping lists he had to go down escalators that led 60 metres underground - and then follow another escalator along a 200-metre tunnel to the centre of the capital. From there led another tunnel travelling 20km underground that could be used in the event of attack. At one time, Kim had to buy seven state-of-the-art electric cars that would not pollute the tunnel with fumes.

Kim Jong-il was also a huge fan of dancers and actors and had a huge interest in the film industry - personally overseeing movies that show the reality of life in the "socialist paradise". He also has a collection of 20,000 films - all banned from normal North Koreans. The films were borrowed in Viennese video stores, copied in a specially-built studio and then taken back. Particular favourites were the fictional Native American hero Winnetou and James Bond.

The dictator himself refused to eat Korean food - insisting on having everything from abroad.

"The dictator Kim Jong-il even had a Coca Cola factory imported all for himself.

"He has 1,500 cars. To maintain them, I travelled all over North Korea, to all the factories. The workers drank some brew on their lunch break, saying �that�s our meals, that way it only takes half a minute. We are hungry before, during and after our meals and our children are malnourished.� What right does Kim have to build villas then, and to have food from all over the world?"

Other unusual purchases included laser guns, armoured limousines and specially adapted fire engines, of which he bought a fleet for his own use.

He said: "I was in tears seeing the way North Korean money was wasted on such extravagance. He ordered things the average North Korean had never even heard of, let alone seen.

"I didn�t like my job. I was disgusted.

"I secretly supported my kids and family. I gave them money.

"Of course I miss my family. Since I left them 17 years ago I�ve heard nothing from them. I have to swallow that. Who doesn�t want to see their daughter?

"I prepared carefully for my escape. I only had three months of service left until my retirement. I was 59, and at 60 you�re kicked out."

Kim was due to catch a flight home in Slovakia but fled from Vienna and from there to Linz - also in Austria.

"Today, just like back when I fled, North Korea is a cruel, lying and hypocritical dictatorship," he said.

"When dictator Kim Il Sung died, I was sure the dictatorship would be overthrown but now after all these years I have given up hope.

"I am in great danger now. The North Koreans will not keep quiet. They might send someone after me.

"Since my escape, I have slept in the same bed for 5,619 consecutive nights without a single interruption. But to this very day I never went out to have fun in the evening.

"It wasn�t my plan to hide for so long. I had prepared my escape to Austria thinking that I might go into hiding for two or three years. Today I hardly harbour any hope of being able to return to North Korea. I will die soon.

"But what I also want to point out is that Western companies have made good money doing business with the dictatorship for decades. And in that way they have helped to support the system - and still do to this day.

"Please publish just a small photo. I�m all wrinkles now, but when I was a student in Dresden, all the girls wanted to go to the cinema with me."

Austrian Times

Write your comment to this article here

Medawar wrote on 19. 03. 2010 from Potton England about "In the service of the dic..."

It's worth pointing out that North Korea is known to be the source of the very high quality forged US currency that various extremist groups, notably the Official IRA, have been feeding into the Western economy for the past couple of decades. I do hope that the US Secret Service is happy with the provenance of all the notes in the above-mentioned suitcases!

Reply

Tag cloud:
colonel luxury business dictator money leader Sung Korean shoes children family German palaces cars personal Jong Austria dictatorship specially earthquakes

	Voves calls for cooperation
	Tova and the Stadt - Skating in Vienna
	Demand for Action Over Crow Plague
	Experts warn against ice-skating
	Le Salzgries

Today

In the service of the dictator

Tag cloud: colonel luxury business dictator money leader Sung Korean shoes children family German palaces cars personal Jong Austria dictatorship specially earthquakes

Tag cloud:
colonel luxury business dictator money leader Sung Korean shoes children family German palaces cars personal Jong Austria dictatorship specially earthquakes