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.
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 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 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 Kim's favorite 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 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 behavior of the reclusive leader, 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.
At one point, Kim ordered the women to strip naked and made his guests dance with them. "Dancing is OK but you can't touch," Kim told them. "If you touch, it's theft."
Australia has announced an agreement with the tiny Pacific nation Nauru enabling it to send hundreds of immigrants to the barren island. The deal affects more than 220 immigrants in Australia, including some convicted of serious crimes. Australian Minister of Home Affairs Tony Burke signed the memorandum of understanding on a visit to Nauru, the government said in a statement on Friday. “It contains undertakings for the proper treatment and long-term residence of people who have no legal right to stay in Australia, to be received in Nauru,” it said. “Australia will provide funding to underpin this arrangement and support Nauru’s long-term economic
‘NEO-NAZIS’: A minister described the rally as ‘spreading hate’ and ‘dividing our communities,’ adding that it had been organized and promoted by far-right groups Thousands of Australians joined anti-immigration rallies across the country yesterday that the center-left government condemned, saying they sought to spread hate and were linked to neo-Nazis. “March for Australia” rallies against immigration were held in Sydney, and other state capitals and regional centers, according to the group’s Web site. “Mass migration has torn at the bonds that held our communities together,” the Web site said. The group posted on X on Saturday that the rallies aimed to do “what the mainstream politicians never have the courage to do: demand an end to mass immigration.” The group also said it was concerned about culture,
ANGER: Unrest worsened after a taxi driver was killed by a police vehicle on Thursday, as protesters set alight government buildings across the nation Protests worsened overnight across major cities of Indonesia, far beyond the capital, Jakarta, as demonstrators defied Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s call for calm. The most serious unrest was seen in the eastern city of Makassar, while protests also unfolded in Bandung, Surabaya, Solo and Yogyakarta. By yesterday morning, crowds had dispersed in Jakarta. Troops patrolled the streets with tactical vehicles and helped civilians clear trash, although smoke was still rising in various protest sites. Three people died and five were injured in Makassar when protesters set fire to the regional parliament building during a plenary session on Friday evening, according to
STILL AFLOAT: Satellite images show that a Chinese ship damaged in a collision earlier this month was under repair on Hainan, but Beijing has not commented on the incident Australia, Canada and the Philippines on Wednesday deployed three warships and aircraft for drills against simulated aerial threats off a disputed South China Sea shoal where Chinese forces have used risky maneuvers to try to drive away Manila’s aircraft and ships. The Philippine military said the naval drills east of Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) were concluded safely, and it did not mention any encounter with China’s coast guard, navy or suspected militia ships, which have been closely guarding the uninhabited fishing atoll off northwestern Philippines for years. Chinese officials did not immediately issue any comment on the naval drills, but they
RSS