BEIJING - It's not clear whether Dear
Leader Kim Jong-il's second son, Jong-chul, 30,
will make the trip to Seoul this Sunday to see
Eric Clapton's concert; he already saw one in
Singapore on Monday. Jong-chul is known to be an
unusually fervent, if not religious, follower of
the British guitarist.
During Clapton's
German tour in 2006 - the last time Jong-chul was
seen publicly outside North Korea - he attended
all four concerts, tailing Clapton as the musician
moved from city to city. Jong-chul even tried to
invite Clapton to stage a concert in Pyongyang,
but it has yet to materialize.
Jong-chul
is the immediate older brother of Jong-eun (born
in 1983, but known inside North Korea as 1982),
the heir appointee. They have the same mother, Koh
Young-hee (1953-2004). An
older son, Jong-nam was
born in 1971 to a different mother, Sung hye-rim
(1937-2002).
Jong-chul's rare public
appearance on the week that his father celebrated
his 70th birthday reignited international
imagination on the three princes of the Kim
dynasty and the still unanswered question of why
the third son, Jong-eun, became the crown prince.
Indeed, little is known about the character of the
leader-in-waiting.
Jong-eun was formalized
as heir of the reclusive nation in September, when
he was appointed a four-star general during the
ruling Workers' Party conference. This week, in
another sign of Jong-eun's elevated status, his
name was carried just below that of his father on
a list of officials attending a choral performance
to mark the birthday.
Only a handful of
people in the world appear to know Jong-eun
personally, and only one person has spoken about
him to the outside world: a Japanese national
named Kenji Fujimoto.
Fujimoto was a
private chef for the Kim family for 13 years,
until 2001, when he escaped to Japan. Late last
year, he wrote a book on a very special topic:
Jong-eun. "When I first met Kim Jong-eun, he was
seven," he stated in the preface to the book,
North Korea's Successor Kim Jong-eun.
In the book, Fujimoto clears up some of
the controversies surrounding Jong-eun, including
his age. According to him, Jong-eun was born in
1983, as he remembered hearing from the young Kim
personally: "I was born in the year of the boar,
just like you, Fujimoto." Fujimoto was born in
1947, also the year of the boar, making it easier
for the author to remember.
Fujimoto
offers his rare insight into why the third son
became the crown heir, going against the usual
Asian practice in which the eldest gets the
inheritance. And more importantly, based on his
understanding of Jong-eun's character and
leadership style, he tries to predict the future
of North Korea under Kim Jong-eun, including
whether he is likely to give up nuclear weapons.
Fujimoto said the oldest son, Jong-nam,
fell out of Kim Jong-il's favor "fairly early"
because during Fujimoto's 13-year stay in
Pyongyang, he never saw Jong-nam attend the
parties Kim Jong-il threw for his top aides and
close family members.
Media reports
usually portray Jong-nam as falling from grace
because he embarrassed his father by being
deported from Japan on suspicion of trying to
enter the country with forged travel documents to
go to Tokyo Disneyland. Fujimoto recalls that the
song Footsteps - widely regarded as a
propaganda song promoting Jong-eun as the nation's
next head - was actually made when Jong-eun was a
mere nine years old, indicating that the father
had already made up his mind.
Jong-eun and
Jong-chul, separated by two years, got along very
well, Fujimoto remembers. Their relationship was
"very good", he said, and it was partly because
Jong-chul seldom displayed assertiveness in front
of Jong-eun. "Between the two young princes, it
was always Jong-eun who called the shots on what
they would play," he said.
For Fujimoto,
Jong-eun displayed a knack for leadership from an
early age, and he gives numerous examples to back
this view.
Jong-eun also displayed an
interest in the opposite sex, but this tendency
may be "moderate". For example, Fujimoto said, "I
remember at one time Jong-eun pointed out a member
of the Pleasure Squad who had big breasts. 'Wow,
she has big breasts', Jong-eun said." But unlike
Jong-chul, who was shy but then became adventurous
when it came to girls and "proactively approached
girls of his interest", Jong-eun never turned his
interest into action, Fujimoto said.
Jong-eun instead had a stronger interest
in social issues and the world outside. For
example, he studied English hard "as an important
international language", Fujimoto remembers.
During the summer vacation of 2000, Jong-eun came
home from Switzerland and took the Kim family's
exclusive train from Pyongyang to the city of
Wonsan.
"Jong-eun came to my cabin, saying
'Can we talk'?" On that rare occasion, Jong-eun
poured out his heart on the situation his country
faced. "Compared to other Asian countries, my
country is lagging behind in industrial
technology. In terms of natural resource, my
country probably can merely boast of uranium. The
lack of electricity seems severe," Jong-eun said.
Fujimoto saw this as a sign that Jong-eun was no
longer just a spoiled brat.
"As he
traveled in developed countries, he also appeared
to be eager to make his country the same," said
Fujimoto.
On China, Jong-eun said,
"Compared to my country that has 23 million, China
has 1.3 billion people and still seems to be
managed well. How can they feed such a big
population! China is strong in agriculture. Its
exports are also good. Maybe we can learn from
it?" The little prince, as Fujimoto recalled, took
interest in China's success stories of reform and
opening up.
Fujimoto paints Jong-eun as a
caring leader in the making. At one time, Jong-eun
told him, "I can enjoy horse-riding every day,
roller-blading and basketball. During the summer,
I can enjoy jet skiing and swim in a pool. But I
wonder how ordinary people live their lives?"
Jong-eun was barely eight at that time.
Kim Jong-il's health was poor when
Fujimoto was in Pyongyang more than 10 years ago.
"When I was in North Korea, Kim Jong-il was taking
more than five different medicines all the time,
including one for diabetes. I remember Kim Jong-il
would complain: 'Do I have to take all these for
the rest of my life'?" As Kim Jong-il's cook,
Fujimoto was often advised by Kim's doctor on the
food that was not to be served for Kim.
As
a person who knew all three sons personally,
Fujimoto disputes the outside view that they are
engaged in a power struggle. For Jong-chul, he
says, "He has a mild character. Even when he was
young, he didn't get upset when his younger
brother took the initiative in doing things. He
simply didn't look humiliated by that."
For the oldest brother Jong-nam, he says,
"Some experts expected when Jong-eun became the
crown prince Jong-nam would be gotten rid of. I
had long rejected the view. There is no need to
kill him as he did not participate in a power
struggle to become the heir himself." Fujimoto
suggests that given Jong-nam's long time in other
countries as well as his language skills, the
eldest son could serve as Jong-eun's spokesperson
abroad.
Although Fujimoto believes
Jong-eun harbors desires for reforms, he doesn't
think North Korea under Jong-eun will give up
nuclear weapons. "He won't simply put his hands
off from the nukes," he said, adding Jong-eun
inherited from his father a tendency to believe
that nuclear weapons were "a means to sustain a
country called North Korea".
Some
observers see Fujimoto as too "sympathetic" toward
Kim Jong-eun because of a personal attachment
gained through his rare and special experience
with the family. Others see him as consciously
doing so, to avoid being assassinated by the Kim
family for revealing probably the most well-kept
secrets in the world.
But Kim Keun-sik, a
professor of North Korean Studies at Kyungnam
University in Seoul, who himself had a personal
encounter with Kim Jong-il in 2007 as part of a
delegation for an inter-Korean summit, gives full
support to Fujimoto. Fujimoto's book, he said,
shows a picture of an "unfiltered" Kim Jong-eun.
Another book on Jong-eun is worthwhile -
Lee Young-jong's Successor Kim Jong-eun.
Mostly, it complements, not contradicts,
Fujimoto's points. While Fujimoto's book is a
personal encounter with Kim Jong-eun before he
reached the age of 20, Lee's book primarily picks
up where Fujimoto left off.
Lee, a veteran
journalist who has covered North Korea for 20
years with South Korean's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper,
offers a good picture of how North Korea's
propaganda machine carefully promoted Jong-eun as
the chosen heir among the public, when it was
pretty much veiled outside. The book also reveals
that Lee has rich sources in South Korea's
intelligence community.
Lee describes, for
example, how South Korea's main spy agency, the
National Intelligence Service (NIS), made public
the fact that Kim Jong-eun was chosen as the heir
internally in North Korea. At 3 pm, June 1, 2009,
Lee said, an NIS official, Choi Jong-heup, made
phone calls to lawmakers who were members of the
parliament's intelligence committee, announcing
that North Korea had just sent out a circular to
its foreign diplomatic missions, notifying that
"Kim Jong-eun was internally decided as the
successor to Kim Jong-il".
A few days
later, on June 8, officials from South Korea and
the US, in charge of North Korea affairs, held a
secret meeting at South Korea's Defense Ministry,
Lee wrote. "At the meeting, intelligence officials
from the two countries confirmed that Kim Jong-il
gave the title of 'wise comrade' to Kim Jong-eun,"
which they interpreted as a sign that North Korea
had decided to begin to deify Kim Jong-eun by
sculpting such an image around him.
Lee
differs from Fujimoto in that he sees Kim Jong-il
choosing the youngest son as heir as a fairly
recent decision after the leader suffered a stroke
in the summer of 2008, not as early as Fujimoto
said. "After going through his illness ordeal in
2008 in which he was almost near death, Kim
Jong-il turned his eyes onto the third son, Kim
Jong-eun," Lee said.
Citing intelligence
sources, Lee illustrates the mysterious death of
Ri Je-gang, senior deputy director of the
Organization and Guidance Department and a close
confidant to Kim Jong-il, who died in a
questionable car accident on June 2, 2010. He
explains how it is "common" in North Korean
leadership circles to use car accidents as a
convenient excuse to eliminate political rivals.
He links the incident to the widely held
suspicion that Ri was actually a victim of a power
struggle surrounding the heir. Fitting into this
view, Lee adds the detail that no funeral
committee was organized for Ri, despite the fact
that he was a very senior official and North Korea
normally organizes one on such occasions.
Lee devotes a lot of time to an internal
power struggle in North Korea, absent in
Fujimoto's book, among the factions of the three
sons.
For example, in April 2009, a group
of special agents from the national security
apparatus stormed a luxurious villa on the
outskirts of Pyongyang, called Wu Am Gak, which
was exclusively used by the Kim family and a
favorite venue for Jong-nam, who held secret
banquets there with close associates.
When
the agents stormed the venue, Jong-nam was not
there. Perhaps that spared his life.
"Surprisingly, the person who ordered the charge
was Kim Jong-nam's younger brother, Kim Jong-eun,"
Lee said, adding the move was a "pre-emptive
maneuver" by Jong-eun to get rid of his rival.
Lee's book was published prior to
Jong-eun's official debut as heir last autumn. As
he accurately predicted that Jong-eun would become
the chosen one when there were competing views,
his book was well received in South Korea.
Sunny Lee
(sleethenational@gmail.com) is a Seoul-born
columnist and journalist; he has degrees from the
US and China.
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