world

North Korean who shopped for dictators goes public

18 Comments

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

18 Comments
Login to comment

As important as it might be that people like this man speak out I can’t help but feel he is putting other peoples lives at risk. It’s one thing for him to say that he fears being killed, but did he give any thought to the position that he has now put his wife and daughters in? We already know about what he is saying and his book is never going to find its way into the general population of North Korea so it can only be self interest that has lead him to go public. What thought has he given to those that are left behind?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

What thought has he given to those that are left behind?

He probably gave it some thought back in 1994 when he faked his own death. Then again, if his wife or children are beneficiaries of the little dictator (food on the table), maybe they don't want to leave North Korea. Hard to say in this short article. Maybe in a few days we'll hear - via South Korea - of their arrest.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

His wife and children have probably already been shot by the "Dear Leader".

0 ( +0 / -0 )

i am tired of reading all this propaganda. He lived a good life and now turns against the people who fed him. Disgusting.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

PS Maybe the dictators are disusting but traitors and reneators are worse.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

LoveUSA: "PS Maybe the dictators are disusting but traitors and reneators are worse."

I'm not sure if this comment is suppose to be sarcastic or not. But either way, it really isn't funny. The North Korean leaders have lived a life of luxury while the North Korean people have faced starvation and fear. As Kim Jong Ryul points out, the North Korean people have had to eat the bark off trees to survive. Without these so called 'traitors', the rest of world would not know what goes on in North Korea.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

i am tired of reading all this propaganda. He lived a good life and now turns against the people who fed him. Disgusting.

...while his wife and children were being held hostage in north korea. i think it good that he exposed this even though it only for money. now if they could only distribute this book in north korea....

0 ( +0 / -0 )

By the tittle my first thought was he was going to buy a new dictator

0 ( +0 / -0 )

i am tired of reading all this propaganda. He lived a good life and now turns against the people who fed him. Disgusting.

I agree with you.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Where did he get his money to live there from?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

In the early 1990s, the car-obsessed ruler even ordered a North Korean version of the Mercedes 200 to be rebuilt. Upon completion, it was presented to a cheering North Korean public amid much fanfare, the defector said.

Wouldn't Kim Il Sung be aghast to note that the poodle (South Korea, in their words) did the same thing to a Mercedez W124 via the Ssangyong Chairman?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"PS Maybe the dictators are disusting but traitors and reneators are worse."

Someone who flees from a totalitarian system is worse in your eyes than the dictators they're fleeing from? Interesting set of priorities.

Personally, I would take much of what this guy says about his life possibly being in danger with a large grain of salt, but the stories of the Kims' extravagant indulgences are hardly a secret to anyone anymore -- other than the people of North Korea who continue to suffer under the current Kim's insane version of a nation.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Really this is nothing -With the way Obama spends we will all be eating tree bark in a few years.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I can see this becoming a movie.

Anyway, I agree and disagree with some points above. The guy needn't necessarily go public like this, as it's just going to endanger a LOT of people close to him. He thinks he just wants his ten seconds of fame.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Someone who flees from a totalitarian system is worse in your eyes than the dictators they're fleeing from? Interesting set of priorities.

come on, this guy lived in luxury himself and now wants to go to the other side. He is not a dissident.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Kim, who left a wife and two children behind in Korea and has yet to seek asylum in Austria, knows he is risking his life by going public. Risking his life? What about the lives of his family?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

This is nothing new. Everyone knows about the situation in NK.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"come on, this guy lived in luxury himself and now wants to go to the other side. He is not a dissident."

So? What does that have to do with him reporting that conditions in North Korea are severe? And nowhere in the article does it say he wants to "go to the other side," as if this were some nefarious double-agent spy thriller. He wrote a book. That's it.

What I'd really like to know is what you mean by this?

"He lived a good life and now turns against the people who fed him. Disgusting."

Are you saying that even if the people he worked for were amoral monsters, he should just stick with them out of some sense of loyalty because they paid his travel bills?

So, in other words, if Josef Stalin's personal assistant decided one day to sneak out of Soviet Russia, and write a tell-all in the West about Stalin's horrible treatment of Russian citizens, you'd be disgusted with him for betraying a murderer like Stalin?

Wow.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites