A North Korean colonel who spent two decades going on European shopping sprees for his country’s rulers said on Thursday the late dictator Kim Il-sung lived in luxury while many people struggled to survive in the impoverished communist nation.
Kim Jong-ryul, who spent 16 years undercover in Austria, also described how the “great leader” and his son and successor, Kim Jong-il, spent millions pampering and protecting themselves with Western goods — everything from luxury cars, carpets and exotic foods, to monitors that can detect heartbeats of people hiding behind walls and gold-plated handguns.
The colonel’s account — told in a new book by Austrian journalists Ingrid Steiner-Gashi and Dardan Gashi — shows the deep divide between the lifestyles of the North Korean leadership and the citizens, who sometimes must subsist eating tree bark, knowing they will be sent to labor camps if they criticize the government.
Kim said this injustice was what motivated him in October 1994 to fake his death at the end of one of his trips and start a new, secret life in Austria in the hope that the oppressive regime would crumble within years.
Kim Il-sung died in 1994, after grooming his son for years to replace him.
With no change in sight in North Korea’s leadership, the colonel decided to come clean and tell his story.
“Without this book, I didn’t want to die,” he said. “Now I can die with a clear conscience.”
Kim Jong-ryul said the late dictator had dozens of sprawling villas — some of them built underground — filled with crystal chandeliers, silk wallpaper and costly furniture.
In some of the villas, Kim Il-sung — who had studied mechanical engineering in the former German Democratic Republic — even developed special ventilation systems which, in the event of a nuclear attack, would continue to function and act as filters, the colonel said.
It was in these palatial homes that Kim Il-sung and his family would feast on an immense array of fine foods — including Austrian specialties.
“He only ate foreign food,” the colonel said. “In Vienna, there was a special attache, a friend of mine, who only procured special foreign food for the dictator.”
Kim Il-sung’s craving once led to a delegation of cooks being sent to Austria to visit renowned culinary schools and some of the country’s finest restaurants to collect recipes.
He also described how Kim Il-sung — while publicly denouncing “Western decadence and imperialism” — had an extensive luxury car collection that included Mercedes, Lincolns, Fords, Cadillacs and Citroens. Kim Jong-il, who liked taking fast sports cars for a spin, also appeared to share his father’s passion.
In the early 90s, the car-obsessed ruler even ordered a North Korean version of the Mercedes 200 to be rebuilt. Upon completion, it was presented to a cheering North Korean public amid much fanfare, the defector said.
Kim, who left a wife and two children behind in North Korea and has yet to seek asylum in Austria, knows he is risking his life by going public.
“I’m very scared — maybe I’ll be killed, shot, in the next few days,” he said.
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