Friday, Mar 19, 2004
Kim Jong-il's ex-chef fears for life
TOKYO, MARCH 18. Almost three years after he fled North Korea, Kenji Fujimoto, the former personal chef and confidant of the country's leader, Kim Jong-il, says he is still living in fear.
Mr. Fujimoto (a pseudonym) fears he is being targeted by North Korean agents for describing in great detail the 13 years he spent in Pyongyang as witness to the Dear Leader's debauched lifestyle and exotic tastes.
His memoir, I Was Kim Jong-il's Cook, tells of Mr. Kim's penchant for the most expensive cuts of raw tuna, Iranian caviar, Danish bacon and fine wines from his 10,000-bottle cellar.
The Japanese chef stared working for Mr. Kim in 1988, six years after he arrived in Pyongyang to work as a sushi chef. He was reportedly offered a £45,000 salary.
He travelled the world, all expenses paid, in search of Mr. Kim's favourite foods, and once returned to Tokyo just to buy cigarettes and 100 rice cakes. On another occasion he was sent to buy 1.2 tonnes of tuna and squid.
By 2001 Mr Fujimoto had learned enough about the North Korean leader to know his own life was in danger. He fled to Japan, telling the dictator he needed to buy top-quality sea urchin for a new dish he had seen being cooked on a Japanese TV show.
As one of the most comprehensive insights available into the behaviour of the reclusive leader, Mr. Fujimoto's book is reported to have attracted the attention of intelligence services. He recounts the evening in 1994 that he was asked to attend one of the leader's ``pleasure parties'', where guests were entertained by ``Kim's Joy Division'' a troupe of young women. -
Copyright © 2004, The Hindu.