North Korea Leadership Watch

Research and Analysis on the DPRK Leadership

New Kim Family Aide Memoir

Kim Jong-ryul, a former KPA Colonel and employee of Kim Il-sung’s secretariat (and perhaps KJI’s Personal Secretariat), has told his story to two Austrian journalists and released a memoir in German Im Dienst des Diktators: Leben und Flucht eines nordkoreanischen Agenten (In the Service of the Dictator:The Life and Escape of a North Korean Agent).  Kim Jong-ryul was a primary operative in the North Koreans’ Austria operation, earning foreign currency and procuring various luxury products, technology and foodstuffs for the late KIS.  When the DPRK President passed away in 1994, Mr. Kim faked his death in Slovakia and subsequently took residence in Austria where he has resided for the last 15 years.

The release of Mr. Kim’s book has been covered by the AFP and Associated Press.  The most interesting bit to be found is how Mr. Kim regards the future of the Pyongyang regime:

On one such shopping trip to Europe however, he turned his back on his country and family.

“Now, just like when I fled, North Korea is a horrible, false, two-faced dictatorship,” according to Kim Jong Ryul.

“I thought after the death of the great dictator Kim (Il Sung), this regime wouldn’t last long.”

“I waited two-three years, then it was five years. What is it now? 15-16 years. So I was mistaken, I was gravely mistaken,” he told journalists.

Adam Cathcart has a comprehensive posting about the Kim Jong-ryul memoir.

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This article was written on 05 Mar 2010, and is filled under Kim Family, Kim Jong-il, KJI Personal Secretariat, Korean Workers' Party (KWP), Third Floor.

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