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Kim Jong-Nam the eldest son of the late Kim Jong-Il Photo: AFP/GETTY
China 'protecting Kim Jong-nam'
Kim Jong-nam, the oldest son of North Korea's late leader, is being protected by China as a fallback option if the regime of his half-brother, Kim Jong-un, collapses.
By Julian Ryall in Tokyo
8:58AM GMT 24 Jan 2012
The elder Kim, who lives in exile in Beijing and Macao, said in interviews for a book released on January 20 that he feels "suffocated" in the Chinese capital because he is never alone.
"If there is trouble anywhere near him, he said that suddenly a number of people appear around him," said Yoji Gomi, a journalist and author of 'My Father, Kim Jong-il, and I: Kim Jong-nam's Exclusive Confession'.
"Even when nothing is happening, he feels their presence," Gomi added. "He said he does not know if he is being protected or monitored, but it is always like that."
It appears that China is taking care of him for its own aims, he added.
"Having the son of the former leader of a neighbouring country under their protection could be a political card that the Chinese could use at some time in the future," he said.
Interviewed over the space of seven years, via email and in person, Kim expressed high hopes for North Korea, although the three main points he voiced after the death of his father in December are unlikely to have been welcomed in Pyongyang.
Kim expressed fear that the country is being run by an inexperienced young man who is likely to be acting at the behest of other forces, and that without economic reforms similar to those carried out in China, he could fall from power. Secondly, he voiced strong opposition to the hereditary transfer of power to his half-brother and claims his father had been equally against the idea not long ago as it runs completely counter to socialist philosophy. And, finally, he is a strong advocate of a "people-first" policy, instead of the North's present "military-first" ideal.
Kim also gave the impression of being genuinely concerned about the future of his homeland not an accusation that can be levelled at other senior members of a regime that, if some reports are to be believed, spends the nation's wealth on sumptuous palaces, private yachts and trains, as well as the finest food and drink that money can buy.
"I got the impression that he was a person you could talk to, someone you could have as a friend, someone you could trust," said Gomi, who struck up a friendship with Kim after a chance encounter in Beijing Airport.
There were some issues that Kim was unwilling to discuss with Gomi, including the state of his father's health, his relationship with the rest of the leadership in Pyongyang, the North's nuclear ambitions, military issues or the abduction of Japanese nationals. He was also reluctant to go into the reason that, it has been speculated, was the cause of him falling out of favour with his father and his half-brother eventually inheriting a post that he had reportedly groomed for.
Kim was arrested in May 2001 trying to enter Japan on a forged Dominican Republic passport with two women and a boy aged 4, telling police that he wanted to visit Disneyland. To Gomi, he also revealed that Kim Jung-on and other senior North Koren officials had travelled on forged passports frequently, but that came to a halt after his own very public and humiliating arrest.
