The man who could have inherited the throne in North Korea’s Communist dynasty instead lives a pampered life in the glitzy Asian gambling hub of Macau, all but banished by the country’s ruling elite.
The reclusive Stalinist state is preparing for its biggest political meeting in decades on Tuesday, with widespread speculation that leader Kim Jong-il will tap his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, for the top job.
That honor might have gone to Kim Jong-nam, 39, the North Korean leader’s eldest son, until he was exiled following a scandal in 2001 when he was caught entering Japan on a fake Dominican Republic passport — enraging his father.
Since then, Jong-nam has passed his days drinking and eating in the former Portuguese colony’s five-star restaurants, trying his luck at the gambling table and spending some of his US$500,000 annual allowance in the territory’s luxury brand stores.
He lives with his wife and two children in an upscale villa complex on Macau’s southern tip, a quiet enclave of pink-tiled houses overlooking the South China Sea — although his exact location proved elusive.
“Oh, the big son? Yes, he lives around here, but I’m not sure which one,” said a taxi driver pointing at rows of cookie-cutter homes.
An employee at the five-star Altira Hotel said the multilingual Kim — who learned English and French at a Swiss boarding school — drops by sometimes.
“I know Mr Kim, but I haven’t seen him today,” he said.
Wearing an untucked dress shirt and blue suede loafers, Jong-nam gave a brief interview to a South Korean reporter in June, denying reports he planned to defect to Europe and saying his reportedly ill father was in good health.
He splits his time between Macau and Beijing — where he also owns a home — while taking trips to Vienna, Bangkok and Moscow.
Like his father, Jong-nam is reportedly fond of the best that money can buy and has a second home in the city where he stays after late nights in one of his favorite karaoke bars or casinos. His three bodyguards live there too, reports said, while his mistress resides in a rented flat nearby.
The low-key son of North Korea’s leader, who has been spotted taking taxis or even the bus without an army of security, takes a keen interest in his family, including his 14-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter.
The family has gone on camping trips or jaunts around the city and even outdoor trips with the Lusophone Scouts, the international movement’s Portuguese-speaking affiliate.
“His wife is always very well dressed,” said Ricardo Pinto, publisher of Macau Closer magazine. “The kids had all sorts of iPods and other gadgets. He seems to like hanging around with friends at some of the Korean restaurants in town. And he likes to gamble, although he isn’t a high roller.”
Jong-nam is not invited to government events and is treated like a private citizen, Pinto said.
“He keeps a very low profile,” Pinto added.
In the late nineties, the eldest of Kim Jong-il’s three sons was the heir apparent, with his father giving him senior jobs in the country’s shrouded political structure. He even held key posts in its military.
In the mid-nineties, he was made a general and head of foreign counter-intelligence in the secret police.
But the failed bid to enter Japan — reportedly to visit Tokyo Disneyland — along with two women and his son derailed those plans after his angry father effectively barred him from ever taking the top job in Pyongyang.
Observers said Jong-nam’s resume makes him a better choice as North Korea’s next leader over his half brother — the pair were born to different mothers.
However, the eldest Kim, whose film-star mother died in 2002, shrugs off any talk of his appointment to North Korea’s highest office.
“If I were the successor, would you see me in Macau wearing these casual clothes and taking a holiday? I am only the son of Kim Jong-il,” he told a Japanese television reporter last year. “I am a North Korean citizen who has the right to live in Macau and China. To call me a fugitive from North Korea is completely incorrect.”
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese