Posted on 10/15/2003 9:12:09 AM PDT by AmericanInTokyo
Title: Great General (Kim Jong il) Lives in Fear of Assassins
By Shane Green, Tokyo, October 15, 2003 (The Australian Age)
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il lives in constant fear for his life, using a fleet of luxury cars to act as decoys to confuse would-be assassins, a former bodyguard has claimed.
Lee Young-kook, who has defected to South Korea, claimed the communist leader is concerned he will meet the same fate as Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, shot by a firing squad after a 1989 revolt.
"Kim is in a serious dilemma," Mr Lee said. "If he opens the country or doesn't open the country, he knows he could be killed."
In an interview with South Korea's Yonhap news agency, Mr Lee sketched a portrait of a ruthless dictator who "has no emotions or human feelings". "Anyone who refers to Kim Jong-il without the title of Great General or General loses his head," said Mr Lee, who spent a decade as a bodyguard for Mr Kim until 1988.
"In the psyche of Kim, there is no one in the world except him, and everybody should obey him." He cited the case of Mr Kim sending a 68-year-old member of the leader's security detail to a coal mine after he was caught smoking one of the Great General's cigarettes in a lift in one of Mr Kim's 14 luxury villas. The man was stoned to death by fellow miners, who were killed in turn when Mr Kim found out.
Mr Lee detailed the elaborate security measures used when the leader travels. Mr Kim has 100 Western luxury cars kept in a five-storey building. Ten cars are identical, so that when Mr Kim travels his car can't be identified in the motorcade.
"We were notified of Kim Jong-il's destination only two hours ahead of time," Mr Lee said. "Kim is worried about his own safety." Mr Lee first tried to defect in 1994, but was captured and spent 4½ years in prison. Upon release, he escaped to China, making it to South Korea in 2000.
The former bodyguard's insights adds to a growing body of material about the bizarre lifestyle of the leader. A thriving Kim industry is developing, with interest fanned by the crisis over Mr Kim's nuclear arms program. Earlier this year, his former sushi chef told all in Kim Jong-il's Cook, a bestseller in Japan. He told of lavish four-day banquets, as ordinary North Koreans starved, and Mr Kim's "Joy Division" - beautiful young women who sing, dance and bathe the leader.
Japan, under threat from North Korean missiles, is balancing that fear with a healthy appetite for material about Mr Kim's alleged lascivious lifestyle. The South Korean cartoon-like parody of Mr Kim, Basic Knowledge on Kim Jong-il, was translated into Japanese. It has sold more than 300,000 copies.
There is a box-load of bullets each bearing the name "Kim Jong-il" on them, or a vial of poison waiting to be emptied into a bowl of Pyongyang poshintang soup.
Really? I'm concerned he won't.
And North Koreans, if you're lurking, please give a thought to the idea of sticking Kim's worthless noggin on a pike when you're done shooting and beating him!
I was just thinking that Kim looked like one of the ChiCom villains on Hawaii Five-0.
Gee, ten identical cars--better not take a chance:
As secondary targets I'd recommend his alcohol stash and the Comfort Squad. They're both soft targets, and they'd easily push him over the edge if hitting the primary targets didn't do the trick.
The sooner the better. Thanks for the ping Phil.
Somewhere, someday, somehow, there will be hell to pay.
There is a box-load of bullets each bearing the name "Kim Jong-il" on them, or a vial of poison waiting to be emptied into a bowl of Pyongyang poshintang soup.
Maybe Kim knows a few things about Korean history and another Kim that we do not.
Students in Taegu and Seoul staged campus rallies and demonstrations in September 1979. In mid-October, students in Pusan poured into the streets and clashed with police, leading the government to declare martial law in that city. In late October, students in Masan launched a demonstration; the government placed the city under "garrison decree." The army took over the responsibility for public order.
Close Park associates such as Kim Chong-p'il were reported to have counseled the president to meet some of the student demands and reduce repression, but were opposed by presidential security chief Ch'a Chi-ch'ol. Ch'a also sharply disagreed with Kim Chae-gyu, the director of the KCIA, who had counseled moderation in the government's handling of the student protesters. On October 26, 1979, the nation's most powerful figures, Park, Ch'a, and Kim Chae-gyu, met in a KCIA safe house restaurant for dinner to discuss, among other things, the Pusan situation. In the sharply divided discussion that followed, Kim gunned down Park, Ch'a, and their bodyguards.
I was just thinking that Kim looked like one of the ChiCom villains on Hawaii Five-0.
Book 'im, Dan-O!
Kim Jong-il: ^^^
Wo-Fat: ^^^
Actually, I was kind of thinking of another match:
Hello dere!
-archy-/-
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