Latest / Big Brother: North Korea’s Forgotten Prince / Like Father, Unlike Son

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Like Father, Unlike Son · Big Brother: North Korea’s Forgotten Prince

0:04
Speaker 1: Here's something you wouldn't expect about Kim Jong il. He
0:08
Speaker 1: wasn't born on the divine slopes of Mount pet two.
0:12
Speaker 1: He wasn't even born in Korea. He spent the first
0:17
Speaker 1: four years of his life living in the eastern stretches
0:20
Speaker 1: of the Soviet Union, a logging camp in Siberia. To
0:25
Speaker 1: be exact. According to Russian birth records, Kim Jong Il's
0:30
Speaker 1: name is actually Yuri Irsinovich Kim it was the Korean
0:38
Speaker 1: Peninsula was occupied and controlled by Japan, and Kim's father,
0:43
Speaker 1: the future Supreme Leader, Kim Il sung, was a guerrilla
0:47
Speaker 1: freedom fighter, the leader of a rag tag platoon of
0:51
Speaker 1: communist soldiers fighting Japanese imperialists. But when World War Two erupted,
0:57
Speaker 1: Kim Il sung fled into the Soviet Union with a
1:00
Speaker 1: female soldier, a dogged fighter who had served as his bodyguard.
1:05
Speaker 1: Her name was Kim Changshuk. According to people who knew her,
1:11
Speaker 1: Chungsuk was a warm hearted, but rugged and fearless woman.
1:16
Speaker 1: When she was a teenager, her family had been murdered
1:20
Speaker 1: by Japanese settlers. She had sworn revenge, joined the Korean
1:25
Speaker 1: cause and met Kimio sung on the battlefield. She even
1:29
Speaker 1: saved the man's life from a deadly ambush, and it
1:33
Speaker 1: was during this time in the early forties, a Tongsuk
1:37
Speaker 1: and Kimilsung fell in love, became unofficially married and had
1:41
Speaker 1: two boys, Yuri Rsenovich, lovingly nicknamed Urah and his little
1:47
Speaker 1: brother Shoulda. In Russia, the children received endless attention and affection,
1:55
Speaker 1: but in when Korea was liberated from Japan, the Kim
2:01
Speaker 1: family returned home. Kim Il sung, who had ingratiated himself
2:06
Speaker 1: with Soviet leadership, was installed by Joseph Stalin as North
2:10
Speaker 1: Korea's chairman. For a young Kim Jong Il and his brother,
2:15
Speaker 1: leaving Russia was difficult. Their parents became busy and distant.
2:21
Speaker 1: Their dad was occupied trying to build a communist utopia,
2:26
Speaker 1: and their mother was often away traveling the country as
2:29
Speaker 1: his political representative. And then in September, tragedy struck. Kim
2:38
Speaker 1: Jong Zook was pregnant and Kim Jong Il, just eight
2:42
Speaker 1: years old, waited in the palace for his mom to
2:45
Speaker 1: bring home a baby sister. Hours later, a family member arrived,
2:51
Speaker 1: tears streaming down her cheeks. Kim Jong Ille was told
2:56
Speaker 1: to prepare instead for a funeral. The baby had been lost,
3:02
Speaker 1: and so too had his mother. Kim Jong Ill panicked,
3:09
Speaker 1: he sprinted out the door in the direction of the hospital.
3:12
Speaker 1: Guards swooped in and grabbed him. As an officer lugged
3:16
Speaker 1: him back into the house, the little boy began wailing uncontrollably,
3:20
Speaker 1: calling out for his mother. At the funeral, Kim Jong
3:24
Speaker 1: Il was inconsolable. He clung to his dead mother's body
3:28
Speaker 1: and wept in her arms. When a group of elders
3:32
Speaker 1: tried to lead the boy away, his father stopped them, saying,
3:37
Speaker 1: tomorrow you will have no mother anymore, and who's embraced
3:40
Speaker 1: to cry? Little did the boy know, but the supreme
3:45
Speaker 1: leader was already thinking about his wife's replacement. A grieving
3:49
Speaker 1: Kim Joang Ill would watch with jealousy as his father
3:53
Speaker 1: built a new family around a new woman, growing even
3:58
Speaker 1: more distant from his eldest on. That's the strange thing
4:03
Speaker 1: about the stories of Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Nam.
4:06
Speaker 1: The two generations share an eerie parallel. Both, in one
4:12
Speaker 1: way or another, would lose their mothers and childhood, and
4:16
Speaker 1: both would spend the rest of their lives fighting these
4:19
Speaker 1: other new families for the love and attention of their father,
4:23
Speaker 1: the supreme leader. The result would be a series of
4:28
Speaker 1: cruel family games of manipulative in fighting that would do
4:33
Speaker 1: much more than alter the dynamic inside the gilded palaces
4:37
Speaker 1: of Kung Yang. It would change the course of world history.
4:46
Speaker 1: My name is even Lee, and in this episode, the
4:50
Speaker 1: tale of two generations of Kim's vying for power in
4:55
Speaker 1: a world of subterfuge, espionage and deceit, and the mistake
5:00
Speaker 1: that may have caused Kim jong Nam the crown and
5:03
Speaker 1: his life. She takes a gun away, and she says,
5:06
Speaker 1: you're not getting any stupid ideas. Be a man and
5:09
Speaker 1: go forth and lead your country in the East Asia.
5:12
Speaker 1: People around the court like to go on and on
5:15
Speaker 1: about which branch has what it takes to be the
5:18
Speaker 1: leading branch of the family. I think that it was
5:23
Speaker 1: due to the mothers that the succession decision was made.
5:29
Speaker 1: This is big brother. While Kim Jong Il's mother had
5:41
Speaker 1: died in childbirth, Kim Jong Nam's mother, you may remember,
5:45
Speaker 1: was still alive. She was exiled to a mental facility
5:50
Speaker 1: in Russia, leaving the young Kim Jong Nam effectively motherless
5:56
Speaker 1: and the states secret And then in nine a d
6:00
Speaker 1: When the boy was nine years old, his father agreed
6:04
Speaker 1: to send him to a boarding school abroad. Here's journalists
6:08
Speaker 1: and fifield. Kim Jong Nam was living this very abnormal life.
6:14
Speaker 1: You know, he didn't go to school in North Korea.
6:16
Speaker 1: He was confined to one of these palatial compounds. And
6:21
Speaker 1: his grandmother actually said, you know, this is no way
6:24
Speaker 1: for a kid to live. So they the first idea
6:27
Speaker 1: was to go off to the Soviet Union, to Moscow,
6:30
Speaker 1: but Kim Jong Nam was no fan of Russia. Like
6:34
Speaker 1: a true spoiled prince, he whined constantly. His biggest complaint
6:41
Speaker 1: how dirty the Soviet Union's toilets were. So. At the
6:45
Speaker 1: behest of his uncle Chang Song Tech, the boy was
6:48
Speaker 1: sent to Switzerland. Joan Song Tech had found out that
6:53
Speaker 1: lots of celebrities sent their children to the school in Geneva.
6:59
Speaker 1: A Taie Prince is Michael Douglas had all gone to
7:02
Speaker 1: the school in Geneva, so Kim Jong Nam moved to
7:05
Speaker 1: Switzerland to attend the International School of Geneva, one of
7:09
Speaker 1: the most diverse academies on the planet. The institution overflowed
7:14
Speaker 1: with the sons and daughters of wealthy dignitaries and diplomats
7:18
Speaker 1: from all over the world, and even boasted alumnis such
7:21
Speaker 1: as Indira Gandhi. Kim's cousin and playmate Enamo, came with him.
7:27
Speaker 1: The two received fake names and fake passports. They were
7:31
Speaker 1: given alibis and told everybody they were the children of
7:34
Speaker 1: diplomats to avoid bumping into nosey South Korean students who
7:40
Speaker 1: were usually enrolled in English speaking classes. The two cousins
7:44
Speaker 1: two courses in French. It's worth noting they did not
7:50
Speaker 1: speak French. One of those nosy South Korean students, by
7:55
Speaker 1: the way, happened to be doctors Hung Yun Lee, professor
7:59
Speaker 1: at Tufts Universe At many years ago. I enrolled at
8:03
Speaker 1: the International School of Geneva, Switzerland sometime in September. Not
8:10
Speaker 1: only did doctor Lee attend the same school, he attended
8:13
Speaker 1: at the same time as Kim Jong Nam. I enrolled
8:17
Speaker 1: on the very same day. Kim Jong Nam was three
8:20
Speaker 1: years younger than I, so we never were in the
8:23
Speaker 1: same classroom. Hardly ever cross path. But the South Korean
8:28
Speaker 1: ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva mistook Kim Jong
8:33
Speaker 1: Nam as a South Korean student and struck up a
8:36
Speaker 1: conversation with Kim jong Nam, and the North Korean princeling said,
8:41
Speaker 1: I'm actually from North Korea. To say the least, the
8:45
Speaker 1: regime would have its hands full keeping Kim jong Nam
8:48
Speaker 1: a secret. North Korea watched the potential successor closely. Even
8:53
Speaker 1: his cousin in Am enrolled in the same classes just
8:57
Speaker 1: to keep a protective eye on him. Even though she
8:59
Speaker 1: was five years older than him, she went to his class,
9:03
Speaker 1: she was denied a normal upbringing. She was always five
9:07
Speaker 1: years behind the with him. The regime even rented a
9:10
Speaker 1: fifth floor apartment across the street to monitor the princeling.
9:15
Speaker 1: But constant surveillance couldn't stop the fact that Kim jong
9:18
Speaker 1: Nam would be exposed to everything. Europe offered a mixed economy,
9:23
Speaker 1: a free press, and a vast expanse of art, culture
9:27
Speaker 1: and different ways of thinking. For years, this Western playground
9:32
Speaker 1: distracted him from the gossip of Kongyang, namely that his
9:37
Speaker 1: father was building a new family with a new step
9:40
Speaker 1: mom and two younger half brothers. Instead, Kim jong Nam
9:44
Speaker 1: spent his teenage years in blissful ignorance, and as he
9:49
Speaker 1: hobbed nobbed with the richest and most privileged children, in
9:51
Speaker 1: the world. He became something of a snotty playboy. At school,
9:57
Speaker 1: Kim jong Nam befriended the children of famous French thing ears.
10:00
Speaker 1: He went for joy rides and Mercedes benzes with moneyed
10:04
Speaker 1: Arab princes. He let loose on the Riviera with hotel
10:08
Speaker 1: heiresses and skied the Alps with kids who had their
10:10
Speaker 1: own Swiss bank accounts. He partied and snorted drugs. He
10:15
Speaker 1: bought booze with his fake I d and drained the
10:18
Speaker 1: bottles by night. He slept with women and lost count
10:22
Speaker 1: of how many, And then in it all came crashing
10:28
Speaker 1: to an end. Kim Jong Nam turned eighteen and his
10:35
Speaker 1: father demanded that he returned to kung Yang. When he arrived,
10:40
Speaker 1: Residence Number fifteen was boiling with gossip. Kim Jong Ill
10:45
Speaker 1: had children with another woman Uh, and then Kim Jong
10:50
Speaker 1: Ill's affections within show at upon that family. To put
10:55
Speaker 1: it lightly, the two branches of the family were not
10:59
Speaker 1: getting along. This is something that seems to have really
11:03
Speaker 1: emotionally Scott Kim jong Nam, and he felt cast aside.
11:07
Speaker 1: Residents number fifteen, according to Anna Fifield, seethed with rivalry.
11:13
Speaker 1: As she wrote in her book The Great successor quote.
11:16
Speaker 1: They were convinced that the other woman was a manipulative
11:20
Speaker 1: shrew who was poisoning Kim Jong Ill against them. They
11:24
Speaker 1: talked about whether the woman was fat and derided her
11:27
Speaker 1: as half jack. They even concocted vicious nicknames for the stepmother,
11:32
Speaker 1: calling her punct coal, a slur that means hammer nose,
11:36
Speaker 1: but with a twist referencing the gambling game pachinko to
11:40
Speaker 1: snipe at her Japanese roots. But insults couldn't heal the hurt.
11:47
Speaker 1: When Kim jong Nam was sent to Europe, his branch
11:50
Speaker 1: of the family had become an afterthought. Now they felt
11:54
Speaker 1: second class, neglected, and the implications were obvious. The situation
12:00
Speaker 1: harmed Kim Jong Nam's political future, But for those close
12:05
Speaker 1: to the Kim family, this drama wasn't anything unusual. It
12:10
Speaker 1: was just a ja vu because decades earlier, when Kim
12:14
Speaker 1: Jong Il was a little boy, similar complaints were swirling
12:18
Speaker 1: in the palace air. After the death of his mom.
12:23
Speaker 1: His dad had come home with a new mistress, and
12:27
Speaker 1: with this new woman in the picture, his political future
12:31
Speaker 1: had been at risk too. The story of how Kim
12:35
Speaker 1: Jong Ill clawed his way to the top when we return.
12:55
Speaker 1: Truth be told, Kim jong Il had a tenuous relationship
12:59
Speaker 1: with his father long before this other woman stepped in,
13:04
Speaker 1: and that's because of a traumatic event that took place
13:07
Speaker 1: when Kim jong Il men known as Udah, was just
13:12
Speaker 1: a little boy. It's Dah and his little brother Shouldah
13:20
Speaker 1: are playing alone near the edge of a pond. Udah
13:23
Speaker 1: is around six shouda four. The boys grapple and horseplay
13:29
Speaker 1: around the shallows, splashing and dunking each other's heads under
13:33
Speaker 1: the surface. Udah lifts himself out of the water, but
13:37
Speaker 1: when little Shuda tries to climb out, Udah, the bullying
13:40
Speaker 1: big brother, playfully pushes him back in. The boys laugh,
13:46
Speaker 1: and then Shouldah tries to get out a second time,
13:49
Speaker 1: but Udah shoves him right back into the murky lagoon.
13:53
Speaker 1: Udah teases his little brother and continues the cruel game
13:56
Speaker 1: again and again and again. Minutes later, the Supreme Leader
14:04
Speaker 1: rushes to the pond and finds a young Kim jong
14:06
Speaker 1: Il is standing awkwardly at the water's edge. What's the matter?
14:11
Speaker 1: What's the matter? He repeats the question over and over.
14:15
Speaker 1: The little Kim jong yellen speechless. I'm asking you what
14:20
Speaker 1: this is all about. Look at me, Look at me.
14:23
Speaker 1: Kim jong il just stands there, his face to the ground,
14:27
Speaker 1: arrowed in shame. What have you been doing? Just offshore,
14:33
Speaker 1: floating in the water is the lifeless body of his
14:37
Speaker 1: little brother. Kim Jong Il's official biography makes no mention
14:45
Speaker 1: of his dead brother, but documents captured by American soldiers
14:49
Speaker 1: after the Korean War show that Kim Il sung was
14:52
Speaker 1: so heartbroken that he invited Buddhist monks and a shaman
14:56
Speaker 1: to pray at the side of the drowning. According to Defect,
15:00
Speaker 1: they're close to the Kim family. Young Kim jong il
15:02
Speaker 1: would spend the following years a quote lonely and guilty child, quiet,
15:09
Speaker 1: depressed and fearful of what his father thought of him.
15:14
Speaker 1: The dual tragedy of losing his brother and mother would
15:18
Speaker 1: forever alter Kim Jong il's relationship with his father, who
15:21
Speaker 1: had already started a separate family with a new woman
15:25
Speaker 1: and new sons. And that's what sparked a competition that
15:30
Speaker 1: would reshape the politics of North Korea. You see, during
15:35
Speaker 1: the DPR case infancy, Kimo Song was more likely to
15:38
Speaker 1: pass power to a fellow comrade rather than his kids.
15:42
Speaker 1: The whole concept of hereditary succession was anathema to communist teaching.
15:47
Speaker 1: In fact, the North Korean Dictionary of Political Terminologies lambasted
15:51
Speaker 1: the practice quote hereditary succession is a reactionary custom of
15:57
Speaker 1: exploitative societies. Originally a product of slave societies, it was
16:02
Speaker 1: later adopted by feudal lords as a means to perpetuate
16:05
Speaker 1: dictatorial rule. But then at some point Kim il sung
16:10
Speaker 1: changed his mind. By the mid nineties sixties, the Supreme
16:15
Speaker 1: Leader made it clear that power would remain in the family.
16:20
Speaker 1: Kim Jong il, of course, was the first and eldest son.
16:24
Speaker 1: By Confucian tradition, the throne should have been his, but
16:28
Speaker 1: his spot wasn't guaranteed. Kim il sung clearly preferred his
16:34
Speaker 1: two youngest sons over his firstborn. Kim Jong Ille felt
16:38
Speaker 1: the odds were stacked against him, and since his brother
16:42
Speaker 1: and mother were dead, he didn't have many advocates in
16:45
Speaker 1: the regime, so he deployed a plan. At the time,
16:52
Speaker 1: there was no true single party rule, yet multiple communist
16:56
Speaker 1: groups were jockeying for influence. Lumble Over Kimilsung knew that
17:04
Speaker 1: the stability of the country and his pursuit of power
17:08
Speaker 1: depended on consolidating their support. He gave impassioned speeches like
17:13
Speaker 1: the one you're hearing now to rally groups behind his leadership.
17:20
Speaker 1: Here's Michael Madden Kim Il sung. When he first became
17:25
Speaker 1: leader in forty five, he had to contend with different
17:28
Speaker 1: factions of nationalist Koreans. Kim Il sung doesn't have ultimate power,
17:33
Speaker 1: so his whole pursuit from to nifty is basically to
17:37
Speaker 1: dominate the North Korean political system. Kim Il sung strategy
17:42
Speaker 1: centered on a combination of hard and soft power by
17:46
Speaker 1: both cracking skulls and poisoning minds. When he wasn't eliminating
17:52
Speaker 1: traitors through bloodshed, the leader was focusing his attention on
17:56
Speaker 1: winning people's trust. He enlisted advisor to boost his reputation
18:02
Speaker 1: as a person whose wisdom, knowledge, and power or unmatched.
18:07
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, peddling propaganda became a way to
18:11
Speaker 1: win favor with the leader. A palatial arms race ensued.
18:16
Speaker 1: Who could praise and idolize the supreme leader the most.
18:21
Speaker 1: This was Kim Jong Il's wheelhouse. As a lover of
18:24
Speaker 1: theater and movies, he was a master of artifice. He
18:29
Speaker 1: turned out films and news articles depicting his father not
18:33
Speaker 1: just as a wise and compassionate strong man, but as
18:36
Speaker 1: all knowing. Kim Jong Il, in other words, would help
18:40
Speaker 1: transform his father into a living god. As part of this,
18:47
Speaker 1: Kim Jong Ill made everybody in North Korea where lapel
18:50
Speaker 1: pins of his father's face. He built dozens of mansions
18:55
Speaker 1: for his dad, and funneled millions of dollars into erecting
18:58
Speaker 1: statues of his likeness. And so Kim Il Sung the
19:03
Speaker 1: man became Kim Il Sung, the legend, and the leader
19:09
Speaker 1: relished the attention. As more people praised him, the more
19:16
Speaker 1: the personality called grew into a cartoonish mythology. The history
19:22
Speaker 1: books literally changed. Kim Il Sung transformed from a meager
19:27
Speaker 1: guerrilla fighter to the beating heart of the resistance movement,
19:31
Speaker 1: the man who had singlehandedly liberated the country, and people
19:36
Speaker 1: believed it. In nine, journalist Bradley Martin visited North Korea
19:41
Speaker 1: for the World Table Tennis Championships. He realized that North
19:45
Speaker 1: Korea operated with a peculiar piety. When I first went there,
19:51
Speaker 1: it clearly was a religious state that the people worshiped
19:55
Speaker 1: Kimmel Song, and in his opinion, it was sincere the
20:00
Speaker 1: worship was not purely a matter of their submitting to government,
20:05
Speaker 1: but they wanted to worship him. They loved him, and
20:11
Speaker 1: I detected very little falsity in the expressions of praise,
20:15
Speaker 1: and it was very much a religious state. Kim Jong
20:20
Speaker 1: Il's propaganda efforts would change the face of North Korea,
20:24
Speaker 1: and they put him back in his father's good graces,
20:28
Speaker 1: but it still didn't guarantee that he'd inherit the throne.
20:32
Speaker 1: The one thing standing in Kim Jong Il's way was
20:36
Speaker 1: his new stepmother, who was positioning her firstborn son, named
20:40
Speaker 1: Kim Chang Ill as a successor. In East Asia, people
20:45
Speaker 1: around the court like to go on and on about
20:48
Speaker 1: which branch has what it takes to be the leading
20:51
Speaker 1: branch of the family. That was pretty much as it
20:56
Speaker 1: was with Kim Jong il and his brother Kim Young.
21:02
Speaker 1: Kim Kang yell was a terrifying opponent. He was the
21:07
Speaker 1: spitting image of their father. He had a much more
21:10
Speaker 1: affectionate relationship with him too, and no amount of flattering
21:14
Speaker 1: publicity could replace the fact that Kim Il sung spent
21:18
Speaker 1: his nights sleeping next to Kangiel's mother. Propaganda was no
21:24
Speaker 1: match for pillow talk. Kim Joang Ill realized that in
21:28
Speaker 1: order to become the front runner, he'd have to do
21:31
Speaker 1: more than boost his father into the image of a god.
21:35
Speaker 1: To destroy his little brother's prospects, he'd have to eliminate
21:39
Speaker 1: the power of the other woman. Two decades later, Kim
21:51
Speaker 1: jong Nam would face a similar challenge with his stepmother.
21:57
Speaker 1: When he returned from Europe. The dynamics of palace life
22:02
Speaker 1: had changed. His father once so loving hardly visited Residence
22:09
Speaker 1: Number fifteen anymore. It was as if the Chong Nam
22:12
Speaker 1: side of the family didn't exist. Kim Jong Il's other
22:16
Speaker 1: family included a five year old son, Kim Jong Un,
22:21
Speaker 1: and their father devoted all of his free time and
22:25
Speaker 1: energy to this little boy. But what really shocked and
22:29
Speaker 1: dismayed Kim jong Nam's branch of the family was how
22:33
Speaker 1: brazen his father's new mistress, Ko Yuan Ki was acting.
22:37
Speaker 1: Up until this point, Kim Jong Il's wives were to
22:40
Speaker 1: run the household. They were not to be involved in politics.
22:43
Speaker 1: He changes his mind about that with Koyeng Hui. As
22:47
Speaker 1: Michael Madden explains, Couse shamelessly inserted herself into politics. Kyeong
22:54
Speaker 1: Whui is allowed to talk to the political age that
22:57
Speaker 1: come by the house to brief Kim Jong Ill. That's
23:00
Speaker 1: where Koyonghui starts to attain a degree of political importance.
23:03
Speaker 1: She's a close steward a selection of Kim Jong Ill's
23:06
Speaker 1: top guys. The Kim jong Nam side of the family,
23:10
Speaker 1: koyeng He was just manipulating the man. She was nothing
23:14
Speaker 1: but a gold digger, an illegitimate concubine, unworthy of the
23:18
Speaker 1: title of wife, and she was part Japanese North Koreas
23:22
Speaker 1: sworn enemy. And so to Kim jong Nam's family, her
23:27
Speaker 1: kids weren't successors. They were illegitimate children and thus illegitimate heirs.
23:34
Speaker 1: But like the generation before him, Kim Jong Nam's mother
23:38
Speaker 1: was out of the picture. Kim Jong Nam's mother had
23:43
Speaker 1: basically had a mental breakdown and gone to Moscow and
23:47
Speaker 1: stayed abroad for almost the rest of her life, and
23:49
Speaker 1: so she was literally out of the inner circle. She
23:54
Speaker 1: was far away. She didn't have much influence. Koyeong He,
23:58
Speaker 1: on the other hand, Kim Jong UN's mother, she was
24:03
Speaker 1: very much an in a circle. She was at Kim
24:06
Speaker 1: Jong Il's side. She was making decisions, she was advising him,
24:11
Speaker 1: and she had been trying to position both of her
24:15
Speaker 1: sons as the heir apparent to Kim jong il, so
24:20
Speaker 1: she did things like making sure that they both got
24:24
Speaker 1: the military uniforms and were called little generals just like
24:27
Speaker 1: Kim jong nam was. She made sure that they went
24:30
Speaker 1: into like the North Korean equivalent of West Point, so
24:35
Speaker 1: that they had that military training and they could justify
24:39
Speaker 1: leading a country that had a military first policy. She
24:44
Speaker 1: was actively lobbying for them behind the scenes. I think
24:48
Speaker 1: that it was due to the mothers that this succession
24:53
Speaker 1: decision was made, and Koeng he knew a finger too
24:58
Speaker 1: about getting on the leaders good side. In fact, she
25:04
Speaker 1: became one of the most important people in the regime.
25:08
Speaker 1: At that point, Kim jong il had taken the reins
25:11
Speaker 1: of decision making, with his father remaining a mere figurehead.
25:16
Speaker 1: But one day, Kim jong il was riding a horse
25:19
Speaker 1: when he fell off and suffered a severe head injury.
25:23
Speaker 1: It was so bad that the regime flew in a
25:26
Speaker 1: neurologist from France. According to Michael Madden, with her husband incapacitated,
25:33
Speaker 1: Koyong he stepped in during that point. During that point,
25:36
Speaker 1: Young we basically starts helping him with paperwork that's coming
25:39
Speaker 1: into the house, and so for a whole year koyong
25:43
Speaker 1: He acts as Kim jong Il's top advisor. And then
25:48
Speaker 1: when Kim jong Il officially become supreme leader, she saves
25:52
Speaker 1: her husband's life a second time. Goes by a room
25:58
Speaker 1: in one of the houses and sees Kim jong Il
26:00
Speaker 1: cleaning his gun. Kim jong Il is going to shoot
26:02
Speaker 1: himself in the head and commit suicide. She takes a
26:05
Speaker 1: gun away, and she says, you're not getting any stupid ideas.
26:09
Speaker 1: Be a man and go forth and lead the country.
26:12
Speaker 1: So this is where Kim jong UN's mother is sort
26:14
Speaker 1: of endeared to the leader, where she becomes a political
26:17
Speaker 1: force and a political influence. This is where Kim jong
26:22
Speaker 1: Nam's path diverges from his father's. Kim Jong Il prevented
26:26
Speaker 1: his step family from stealing the successorship by well sucking
26:31
Speaker 1: up to his father. It was filial piety on steroids,
26:36
Speaker 1: But when Kim jong Nam's stepmother interfered, he rebelled. Rather
26:42
Speaker 1: than elevate his father's image, he escaped his royal compound
26:46
Speaker 1: and drank his way across kong Yang. There was a
26:49
Speaker 1: period of time when Kim jong nam was in his
26:52
Speaker 1: twenties and was essentially kind of locked in this gilded
26:56
Speaker 1: cage and Pyongyang. You know, he was this young guy
26:59
Speaker 1: wanting to be you know, socializing and having fun and things,
27:02
Speaker 1: and he wasn't able to do that in Pyongyang. So
27:05
Speaker 1: him and his cousin Nam Mock would go out in
27:10
Speaker 1: one of the regime mercedes, you know, at nighttime, go
27:13
Speaker 1: joy riding around the place and kind of burn off
27:15
Speaker 1: a little steam, and words spread fast. Keng Yang's elite
27:20
Speaker 1: complained that Kim jong nam was a belligerent and obnoxious drunk.
27:25
Speaker 1: He made people bow when he entered a room. One time,
27:29
Speaker 1: the drunken prince entered a hotel lobby, pulled out a pistol,
27:33
Speaker 1: and littered the ceiling with bullet holes, all because somebody
27:37
Speaker 1: had taken his parking space. Their speculation that these stories
27:42
Speaker 1: aren't actually true, but in kiang Yang that didn't matter.
27:48
Speaker 1: These rumors were circulating and they were making Kim Jong
27:51
Speaker 1: ill look bad. So when he found out he went dessert.
27:56
Speaker 1: Kim Jong Il's was extremely angry about this um and
28:00
Speaker 1: basically put them on the house arresed uh in their
28:04
Speaker 1: compound in Pyongyang. He denied food to them. They had
28:08
Speaker 1: to live on what they had, and you know, they
28:10
Speaker 1: were really cut off and punished as a result of this.
28:13
Speaker 1: Kim Jong Nam's father even threatened to send his son
28:16
Speaker 1: and extended family to a labor camp. But nobody in
28:20
Speaker 1: residence Number fifteen blamed the young prince. They blamed his stepmother.
28:25
Speaker 1: According to Chong Nam's cousin Enamo quote, the other woman's
28:30
Speaker 1: fingerprints were all over this. There is a suggestion, yeah
28:35
Speaker 1: that it was Kim Jong's mother who took off Kim
28:38
Speaker 1: jong Il and tried to make them look bad. Gossip
28:41
Speaker 1: spread that it was actually the stepmother who had snitched
28:44
Speaker 1: on Chong Nam. As Fifield writes in her book, Koyong
28:48
Speaker 1: he had quote encouraged Kim Jong Il to allow his
28:52
Speaker 1: oldest son more freedom, then rat it on the young
28:55
Speaker 1: man when he enjoyed that freedom. The family was convinced
28:59
Speaker 1: that this other woman would do anything to tarnish the
29:04
Speaker 1: reputation of the man competing with her sons. In his
29:10
Speaker 1: mid twenties, Kim jong Nam did clean up his act
29:13
Speaker 1: and began joining his father on official summits, even accompanying
29:18
Speaker 1: him on a trip to Mount pet two. He began
29:23
Speaker 1: studying economics, a sign that he was destined for big
29:26
Speaker 1: things and was given a military post. Here's Bradley Martin.
29:32
Speaker 1: When Kim jong Nam was twenty four, his father presented
29:37
Speaker 1: him the general's uniform. Everybody started calling him general. That
29:42
Speaker 1: seems to me a pretty good indication that he was
29:45
Speaker 1: at least being thought of as the successor. And at
29:49
Speaker 1: the same time, Kim jong Nam was awarded the freedom
29:53
Speaker 1: to travel beyond the palace walls. He adventured to Japan
29:57
Speaker 1: and Beijing, where some suggests he indulged in women and
30:01
Speaker 1: illicit activities as well as official business. Everywhere he went,
30:07
Speaker 1: he traveled with a fake passport under a fake name.
30:13
Speaker 1: Things were looking up. Kim jong Nam was elected as
30:16
Speaker 1: a delegate to North Korea's legislature. He even got to
30:20
Speaker 1: flex his muscles as a computer was He was active
30:24
Speaker 1: in getting the Korean Computer Center started up and in
30:26
Speaker 1: the import of computers, and he had a position which
30:30
Speaker 1: is now called the Ministry of Social Security. Those are
30:33
Speaker 1: pretty high end positions as far as the North Korean
30:36
Speaker 1: regime of that day. This latter position at the State
30:40
Speaker 1: Security Ministry was an important one. Kim jong Nam had
30:44
Speaker 1: the tough job of handling defectors and refugees, and it
30:48
Speaker 1: gave him an opportunity to show his soft side. There
30:52
Speaker 1: there was an incident around where hundreds of North Koreans
30:56
Speaker 1: had fled into China to try to find food, which
30:59
Speaker 1: was highly legal. These people were all detained and then
31:03
Speaker 1: one day they're all turned loose. They all got pardoned,
31:07
Speaker 1: and they were told to thank Comrade Kim jong Nam
31:10
Speaker 1: because Comrade Kim jong Nam had exercised his benevolence on
31:14
Speaker 1: their behalf and forgiven these hungry people. In the words
31:18
Speaker 1: of a human rights activists, the official party line was
31:22
Speaker 1: you owe all of this to Kim jong Nam. By
31:27
Speaker 1: the millennium, it seemed that Kim jong Nam had survived
31:30
Speaker 1: his roaring twenties, had survived the manipulations of his stepmother.
31:35
Speaker 1: He was building a name for himself in the regime.
31:40
Speaker 1: And then in two thousand and one this happened Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland,
31:47
Speaker 1: taking his sons to Disneyland. Kim jong Nam got caught
31:52
Speaker 1: going to Disneyland. Y we'll get back to Mickey Mouse later.
32:16
Speaker 1: The very fact that Kim jong Nam's political prospects ever
32:20
Speaker 1: survived the nineties, despite his gun coding beer guzzling, sex
32:24
Speaker 1: loving reputation is remarkable because that's exactly what helped bring
32:30
Speaker 1: down Kim Jong Il's half brother, Kim Kangyell. Remember that rivalry.
32:35
Speaker 1: In the nineteen seventies, Kan Yell was steadily climbing the ladder.
32:40
Speaker 1: He entered the bodyguard division of the Supreme Guard Command,
32:44
Speaker 1: graduated from Kim Millsung University, was promoted to colonel and
32:49
Speaker 1: named vice head of the Strategic Department of Bodyguards. All
32:53
Speaker 1: signs pointed to Kim kangy Ill as a Supreme Leader's favorite.
32:58
Speaker 1: It helped that his mother was all around to whisper
33:01
Speaker 1: encouraging words into Kim Il Sung's ear. But there was
33:05
Speaker 1: one problem. Kim Kang Ill was the life of the party.
33:11
Speaker 1: He drank, danced, and caroused with officers in the State
33:15
Speaker 1: Security Department and with big wigs in the bodyguard units.
33:19
Speaker 1: He lived for elaborate gifts, engraved watches, and free drinks.
33:26
Speaker 1: Little did he know Big Father Kim Jong Il was
33:30
Speaker 1: spying on him. One day at a party, a group
33:34
Speaker 1: of bodyguards started drunkenly praising the young potential air chanting
33:39
Speaker 1: live man. This was a dumb mistake in a country
33:53
Speaker 1: where Kim il sung was a living god. Only one
33:57
Speaker 1: person deserved a live long chant. This was pure, unadulterated blasphemy.
34:04
Speaker 1: Words soon reached Kim jong Il as the state propaganda master.
34:09
Speaker 1: He knew these chants sounded like somebody trying to chip
34:11
Speaker 1: away at the supreme leaders allegiances. Kim Jong Il was
34:16
Speaker 1: a better in fighter than Kim kyong yo, so he
34:20
Speaker 1: got some dirt on Kim kyong yo and got the
34:24
Speaker 1: word through his father that Kim Yongyo was arrating around
34:28
Speaker 1: as if he were the successor designate, as if he
34:33
Speaker 1: were a big shot. Kim il Sung was outraged. Kyongyo
34:39
Speaker 1: was quickly demoted. He went off and became a diplomat
34:44
Speaker 1: in Europe for his old career, and so Kim kang
34:48
Speaker 1: Ill was shipped off an embassy overseas. For a member
34:52
Speaker 1: of the royal family, it was like being put out
34:55
Speaker 1: to pasture. Kim kang Ill would spend the rest of
34:58
Speaker 1: his life living under constant surveillance. Kim Jong Ille was
35:02
Speaker 1: happy to have his half brother out of the picture,
35:05
Speaker 1: but al staying matt nuisance wasn't enough. He was hell
35:09
Speaker 1: bent on weakening his stepmother's power too. Just to be safe,
35:15
Speaker 1: so he exploited one of his father's greatest weaknesses. The
35:20
Speaker 1: Supreme Leader was a notorious flirt, and his son knew
35:25
Speaker 1: he could drive a wedge into their relationship by simply
35:28
Speaker 1: introducing his dad to new women, ladies who could shower
35:32
Speaker 1: him with attention and pleasure. The scheme weren't. The marriage
35:39
Speaker 1: between his father and his stepmother frosted over. With Kim
35:43
Speaker 1: Il sung's attention elsewhere, the woman's influence waned. Kim Jong
35:48
Speaker 1: Ille won a battle of attrition. Soon he was announced
35:53
Speaker 1: the successor. He celebrated by sticking his stepmother's nose in
35:58
Speaker 1: it In she was forced to publicly read an embarrassing
36:05
Speaker 1: speech praising Kim Jong Il's dead mother. The stepmom was
36:09
Speaker 1: compelled to call her quote an imperishable communist revolutionary fighter
36:14
Speaker 1: and outstanding woman activists. She also had to call her
36:19
Speaker 1: one of the three generals of Mount Peto and the
36:23
Speaker 1: biggest insult the mother of the nation. Soon, the stepmother's
36:29
Speaker 1: relationship with Kim Il Song completely dissolved. Six years later,
36:35
Speaker 1: she was placed under house arrest. By the late nineteen eighties,
36:40
Speaker 1: as Kim Jong il amassed more power, the woman who
36:44
Speaker 1: had tried to cut him down was nowhere to be seen,
36:50
Speaker 1: but the same could not be said for Kim jong
36:54
Speaker 1: nam stepmother. On May one, two thousand and one, a
37:05
Speaker 1: plane flying out of Singapore touchdown at Nadita International Airport
37:09
Speaker 1: outside of Tokyo, Japan. Kim jong Nam, then just nine
37:14
Speaker 1: years old, arguably near the height of his political cloud,
37:17
Speaker 1: stepped off the plane with his family, two women and
37:21
Speaker 1: a little four year old boy. As the family stood
37:25
Speaker 1: in line for immigration, security officials approached, they asked to
37:30
Speaker 1: inspect Kim jong Nam's passport. Like the rest of the
37:35
Speaker 1: royal family, the document was fake. It said he was
37:39
Speaker 1: from the Dominican Republic and listed his name as Pang
37:42
Speaker 1: Yung Chinese for fat Bear. Officials led Kim jong Nam
37:47
Speaker 1: into a room for questioning. At first, Chong Nam stonewalled
37:52
Speaker 1: the investigators, speaking a mix of Japanese and English. An
37:57
Speaker 1: hour past before he dropped the bombshell that he was
38:00
Speaker 1: the son of North Korea's dictator, thought Kim Joda. He
38:05
Speaker 1: explained that he had come to take his young son
38:08
Speaker 1: to Tokyo Disneyland. He showed them his passport, again, displaying
38:12
Speaker 1: stamps proving that he had entered Japan multiple times without trouble,
38:18
Speaker 1: but the questioning continued. Over the next seventy two hours.
38:23
Speaker 1: Kim jong nam and his family would be kept at
38:25
Speaker 1: an immigration detention center. Word got out fast and journalists
38:32
Speaker 1: flocked to the airport. Meanwhile, and Kongyang official scramble to
38:38
Speaker 1: deny the news. The regime, according to Hongyun Lee, was
38:43
Speaker 1: growing embarrassed. Why is that embarrassing because North Korea rails
38:49
Speaker 1: against the evils of capitalism, materialism, Western pop culture and
38:55
Speaker 1: Disneyland nicely and captures all of those quality. After three days,
39:02
Speaker 1: Kim jong nam and his family were deported, but not
39:05
Speaker 1: before journalists snapped photos of North Korean royalty making the
39:09
Speaker 1: walk of shame onto an airplane. When Kim Jong Nam
39:13
Speaker 1: returned home, his father was outraged. He disinvited his son
39:18
Speaker 1: from attending a special economics meeting with the Chinese, and
39:22
Speaker 1: he'd never be invited to a high level event again.
39:26
Speaker 1: Two years later, the North Korean People's Army Publishing Company
39:30
Speaker 1: released an article entitled The Respected Mother is the most
39:34
Speaker 1: faithful and loyal subject to the Dear Leader, Comrade Supreme Commander.
39:40
Speaker 1: The story was designed to deify the mother of the
39:43
Speaker 1: future successor in the same way that Kim jong il's
39:46
Speaker 1: late mother had been celebrated. But the subject of the
39:50
Speaker 1: article was not Kim jong nam's mother. It was Koyong he,
39:55
Speaker 1: the mother of Kim jong Un. To this day, rumors
40:01
Speaker 1: swirl that Kim jong un was, in fact just the
40:04
Speaker 1: beneficiary of his mother's dirty tricks. There was South Korean
40:09
Speaker 1: chitta chatta that it was actually Kim jong UN's mother
40:11
Speaker 1: who leaked the details about the Disneyland Tokyo trip to
40:16
Speaker 1: the Japanese press in an effort to actively embarrass Kim
40:20
Speaker 1: jong nam. Did Kim jong UN's mother tip off the
40:23
Speaker 1: Japanese about Kim jong Nam's travel plans to Tokyo, nobody
40:27
Speaker 1: is certain, but with Kim jong Nam disgraced an international
40:32
Speaker 1: laughing stock, the events certainly helped push her sons to
40:36
Speaker 1: the front of the line. I came away with the
40:38
Speaker 1: impression that it was because of her efforts to promote
40:41
Speaker 1: her sons that Kim jong Un had risen to the top.
40:46
Speaker 1: Kim jong Il won the battle against his stepmother, Kim
40:50
Speaker 1: jong Nam did not next time on big brother. Kim
40:59
Speaker 1: jong Nam walk a tight rope with his father's favor
41:03
Speaker 1: After putting the regimes carefully protected image in peril. Big
41:12
Speaker 1: Brother is a production of School of Humans and I
41:15
Speaker 1: Heart Radio and hosted by me Eden Lane. Lucas. Riley
41:19
Speaker 1: is our writer, co director and associate producer. Amelia Brock
41:23
Speaker 1: is our senior producer, co director and editor. Executive producers
41:28
Speaker 1: are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, L. C. Crowley, and Jason English.
41:33
Speaker 1: Our fact checker is Aaron Blakemore Music composed by Jason
41:37
Speaker 1: Todd Shannon and Tunewalders. Original score mixed by Vic Stafford.
41:42
Speaker 1: Our opening song is Walt's Number two from the Second
41:45
Speaker 1: Suite for Jazz Orchestra by Dmitri Shostakovich, as performed by
41:50
Speaker 1: the Ukraine National Symphony Orchestra, licensed from Naxos Records and G. Shermer, Inc.
41:56
Speaker 1: The North Korean National Anthem is licensed from Warner Chapel Production.
41:59
Speaker 1: Muse Sick audio editing by Jesse nice Swanger sound design
42:04
Speaker 1: and mixed by Harper W. Harris. Special sound credit to
42:07
Speaker 1: Kuama to a Free Sound dot Org. Audio correction by
42:11
Speaker 1: Josh Fisher. Voice acting by Mark Chung, June Yune, Mike Coscarelli,
42:17
Speaker 1: Sean McKee, Daniel Kim, Udy Nam and Judy Alice Lee.
42:22
Speaker 1: Special thanks to Notic Kazu and Hanako Goto, Ryan Murdoch
42:26
Speaker 1: and Will Pearson. Sound licensed from Critical Past. If you're
42:31
Speaker 1: enjoying the podcast, help us get the word out by
42:34
Speaker 1: leaving a rating in your favorite podcast app. Until next time,
42:38
Speaker 1: I'm Even Lee School of Humans