1 00:00:07,840 --> 00:00:11,319 Speaker 1: In the late eighteen hundreds, before anybody in rural East 2 00:00:11,360 --> 00:00:15,000 Speaker 1: Asia had ever heard the name Karl Marx. The Kim 3 00:00:15,040 --> 00:00:18,720 Speaker 1: family was like any other, a family of hard working 4 00:00:18,800 --> 00:00:23,799 Speaker 1: farmers living among a close neck clan of villagers. The 5 00:00:23,880 --> 00:00:28,560 Speaker 1: Kims were poor. Their dinners consisted of gruel, with meat 6 00:00:28,640 --> 00:00:32,520 Speaker 1: and fruit as rare luxuries. The family didn't even own 7 00:00:32,520 --> 00:00:36,120 Speaker 1: a clock. If anybody wanted to know the time, someone 8 00:00:36,159 --> 00:00:39,199 Speaker 1: would have to run over to the neighbor's house. The 9 00:00:39,320 --> 00:00:44,239 Speaker 1: kids found solace in Christianity and attended church every Sunday. 10 00:00:45,120 --> 00:00:49,400 Speaker 1: The family also prized education, and around the turn of 11 00:00:49,440 --> 00:00:53,680 Speaker 1: the century, Kim Il Sung's father, then just a small boy, 12 00:00:54,400 --> 00:00:58,440 Speaker 1: enrolled in class at a modest one room schoolhouse topped 13 00:00:58,440 --> 00:01:02,840 Speaker 1: with a thatched roof. The young Kim was the class monitor, 14 00:01:03,640 --> 00:01:08,360 Speaker 1: something of a teacher's pet. His lecturer, however, was a 15 00:01:08,400 --> 00:01:14,120 Speaker 1: notorious drunk. Each day, the teacher held court in front 16 00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:18,080 Speaker 1: of class, swaying back and forth as he drained the 17 00:01:18,200 --> 00:01:22,720 Speaker 1: bottles of wine. He'd frequently finished the glass and point 18 00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:28,160 Speaker 1: at the young Kim, sending him to fetch more. Kimil 19 00:01:28,240 --> 00:01:33,880 Speaker 1: Song's father meekly obliged, but one day after class, the 20 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:37,640 Speaker 1: young boy spied his teacher walking down the street. The 21 00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:41,880 Speaker 1: man could barely stand, his legs wobbling as he tried 22 00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:47,000 Speaker 1: to maintain balance. Suddenly, the teacher swayed forward, his legs 23 00:01:47,040 --> 00:01:50,280 Speaker 1: unable to keep up, and he tumbled base first into 24 00:01:50,360 --> 00:01:55,320 Speaker 1: a muddy ditch. The boy blushed an embarrassment. A few 25 00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:59,200 Speaker 1: days later, as the young Kim sat in class, the 26 00:01:59,320 --> 00:02:02,240 Speaker 1: teacher point it in his direction and asked him to 27 00:02:02,240 --> 00:02:06,760 Speaker 1: make the familiar trip for wine. The customary filial piety 28 00:02:06,880 --> 00:02:11,240 Speaker 1: extended to teachers after all. Kim collected his instructor's money 29 00:02:11,280 --> 00:02:15,239 Speaker 1: and slipped out for the market. But Kim couldn't shake 30 00:02:15,440 --> 00:02:20,240 Speaker 1: the shameful image of his drunken teacher lying on the ground, 31 00:02:20,760 --> 00:02:26,000 Speaker 1: face soaked in mud, and then an idea. He gripped 32 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:29,840 Speaker 1: his teacher's bottle and heaved it against the rock. Shards 33 00:02:29,840 --> 00:02:34,119 Speaker 1: of glass burst over the dirt. The boy returned to class, 34 00:02:34,320 --> 00:02:38,440 Speaker 1: broken bottle in hand, clothing stained with wine, gasping for air, 35 00:02:38,840 --> 00:02:41,480 Speaker 1: and told the teacher an elaborate story about how he 36 00:02:41,520 --> 00:02:44,280 Speaker 1: had been chased by a tiger. He had run for 37 00:02:44,360 --> 00:02:49,400 Speaker 1: his life and tripped, shattering the bottle who the teacher 38 00:02:49,600 --> 00:02:55,400 Speaker 1: listened with horror. This time, he turned red and shame. 39 00:02:57,120 --> 00:03:00,440 Speaker 1: Later that day, the young Kim returned home and told 40 00:03:00,440 --> 00:03:03,720 Speaker 1: his father what had happened. The family elder listened to 41 00:03:03,760 --> 00:03:08,919 Speaker 1: his son's story and nodded in pride. Then he leaned 42 00:03:08,960 --> 00:03:12,240 Speaker 1: forward and said something that would cement itself into North 43 00:03:12,320 --> 00:03:21,400 Speaker 1: Korean lore. If pupils peep into their teacher's private life frequently, 44 00:03:21,880 --> 00:03:25,399 Speaker 1: they lose their awe of him. The teacher must give 45 00:03:25,520 --> 00:03:29,440 Speaker 1: his pupils a firm belief that their teacher neither eats 46 00:03:29,480 --> 00:03:35,280 Speaker 1: nor urinates. Only then can he maintain his authority at school. 47 00:03:36,200 --> 00:03:41,000 Speaker 1: So teachers should set up a screen and live behind it. 48 00:03:42,120 --> 00:03:47,440 Speaker 1: Set up a screen and live behind it. Years later, 49 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:51,120 Speaker 1: the young Kim would share that advice with his own son, 50 00:03:51,640 --> 00:03:55,240 Speaker 1: Kim il Sung, the future Supreme Leader, would find the 51 00:03:55,240 --> 00:03:59,720 Speaker 1: anecdote so stirring, so wise, that he had included in 52 00:03:59,800 --> 00:04:04,360 Speaker 1: his official memoirs. Its lessons would become central to his 53 00:04:04,520 --> 00:04:10,400 Speaker 1: philosophy on life and leadership. Today, the story of the 54 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:13,320 Speaker 1: teacher still serves as a model for the Kim family. 55 00:04:14,120 --> 00:04:17,120 Speaker 1: If an authority wants to maintain his grip on power, 56 00:04:17,800 --> 00:04:22,000 Speaker 1: his divine god given right to rule over others, then 57 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:26,960 Speaker 1: he must find a way to hide all faults. Anyone 58 00:04:27,080 --> 00:04:33,120 Speaker 1: who compromises or desecrates that carefully calibrated image, whether it's 59 00:04:33,120 --> 00:04:36,480 Speaker 1: a journalist or a movie made by Sony or even 60 00:04:36,520 --> 00:04:39,680 Speaker 1: your own son, is threatening to do more than merely 61 00:04:39,839 --> 00:04:44,800 Speaker 1: damage a man's ego. They challenge the very structure, the 62 00:04:44,920 --> 00:04:51,000 Speaker 1: very foundation of authority itself. The screen, in other words, 63 00:04:51,880 --> 00:05:01,159 Speaker 1: must be protected at all costs. I'm eaten Lee, and 64 00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:05,560 Speaker 1: in this episode we explore the extreme lengths the North 65 00:05:05,640 --> 00:05:09,479 Speaker 1: Korean regime will go to to protect its image, and 66 00:05:09,520 --> 00:05:13,039 Speaker 1: how the country's obsession with that very image led not 67 00:05:13,160 --> 00:05:17,000 Speaker 1: only to its downfall but to Kim Jong nams as well. 68 00:05:17,360 --> 00:05:19,599 Speaker 1: But what the North Korean regime did is they really 69 00:05:19,640 --> 00:05:22,520 Speaker 1: emphasized Korean as. They said, we are going to be 70 00:05:22,560 --> 00:05:25,440 Speaker 1: the most Korean of the two Koreas. These people would 71 00:05:25,440 --> 00:05:28,320 Speaker 1: be publicly executed and their families sent to labor in 72 00:05:28,400 --> 00:05:33,719 Speaker 1: central political detention facilities. Many North Korean defectors say the leadership, 73 00:05:34,080 --> 00:05:35,600 Speaker 1: it's like the sun. You don't want to get too 74 00:05:35,680 --> 00:05:37,920 Speaker 1: close because you're room. You don't want to get too 75 00:05:37,920 --> 00:05:41,600 Speaker 1: far because you'll be freezing. And he was too close 76 00:05:41,960 --> 00:05:54,080 Speaker 1: and was scorched by it. This is big brother after 77 00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:59,000 Speaker 1: the Tokyo Disneyland incident, pundits and went wild with speculation 78 00:05:59,640 --> 00:06:02,560 Speaker 1: Kim Jong Nam, who was being groomed to inherit North 79 00:06:02,640 --> 00:06:08,000 Speaker 1: Korea's communist dynasty, was unceremoniously kicked out of Japan yesterday 80 00:06:08,040 --> 00:06:10,520 Speaker 1: after he tried to sneak into the country with his 81 00:06:10,600 --> 00:06:14,840 Speaker 1: family for a trip to Tokyo Disneyland. It was two 82 00:06:14,839 --> 00:06:17,920 Speaker 1: thousand and one. This was one of the first times 83 00:06:17,920 --> 00:06:20,600 Speaker 1: a member of North Korea's royal family had been seen 84 00:06:20,680 --> 00:06:26,200 Speaker 1: outside the country in public Journalists flocked to Tokyo and 85 00:06:26,279 --> 00:06:31,400 Speaker 1: analysts poured over images, searching for hidden meaning in everything 86 00:06:31,480 --> 00:06:34,599 Speaker 1: from Kim Jong Nam's goal to wristwatch to his trendy 87 00:06:34,640 --> 00:06:39,440 Speaker 1: around glasses. Years later, analysts would suggest that Kim Jong 88 00:06:39,520 --> 00:06:41,919 Speaker 1: Nam was kicked out of North Korea and sent to 89 00:06:41,960 --> 00:06:45,440 Speaker 1: the gambling mecca of Macau all because of the Tokyo 90 00:06:45,440 --> 00:06:52,440 Speaker 1: Disneyland incident. It was, after all, an international embarrassment. Here 91 00:06:52,560 --> 00:06:55,480 Speaker 1: was the son of the world's most famous living communist 92 00:06:55,560 --> 00:06:59,159 Speaker 1: dictator trying to cross international borders to visit what is 93 00:06:59,200 --> 00:07:04,120 Speaker 1: probably the most unabashedly capitalist organization on the planet. But 94 00:07:04,200 --> 00:07:08,560 Speaker 1: many experts we interviewed, including the North Korea watcher Michael Madden, 95 00:07:09,040 --> 00:07:13,680 Speaker 1: I think these pundits are wrong. You know, you know, 96 00:07:13,720 --> 00:07:16,520 Speaker 1: it's an easier narrative. I think for some people to 97 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:19,920 Speaker 1: say that Kim jong nam was the successor and because 98 00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:22,440 Speaker 1: he happened to want to go to Tokyo Disney Resort 99 00:07:22,480 --> 00:07:25,760 Speaker 1: with his family in two thousand one, well, lo and 100 00:07:25,800 --> 00:07:29,120 Speaker 1: behold he got passed over for succession. Then that's just 101 00:07:29,200 --> 00:07:36,240 Speaker 1: not true. Why. Well, because the Kims are frankly hypocrites. 102 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:41,040 Speaker 1: The royal family has been visiting disney resorts for decades. 103 00:07:41,760 --> 00:07:44,680 Speaker 1: Years before the incident, Kim Jong un and his mother 104 00:07:44,720 --> 00:07:48,400 Speaker 1: went to Tokyo to ride those same teacups. Nor was 105 00:07:48,480 --> 00:07:51,720 Speaker 1: Kim jong nam exiled for using a fake Dominican passport. 106 00:07:52,400 --> 00:07:55,360 Speaker 1: Kim Jong un and his immediate family routinely use fake 107 00:07:55,440 --> 00:07:59,520 Speaker 1: Brazilian passports to travel abroad all the time, so did 108 00:07:59,520 --> 00:08:03,080 Speaker 1: the rest of a family. Kim Jong Il wasn't angry 109 00:08:03,120 --> 00:08:05,400 Speaker 1: that his son went to Japan or that he wanted 110 00:08:05,400 --> 00:08:08,520 Speaker 1: to go to Disney. He was angry that his son 111 00:08:08,640 --> 00:08:14,280 Speaker 1: got caught. Kim Jong Il was obsessed with the family's privacy. 112 00:08:14,520 --> 00:08:18,640 Speaker 1: He sincerely felt that his legitimacy depended on maintaining the 113 00:08:18,680 --> 00:08:23,480 Speaker 1: so called screen. In fact, most North Koreans didn't even 114 00:08:23,480 --> 00:08:27,400 Speaker 1: know that dear Leader had children at all. The fact 115 00:08:27,400 --> 00:08:30,480 Speaker 1: that Kim jong Nam attracted so much attention to himself 116 00:08:30,840 --> 00:08:35,160 Speaker 1: did more than puncture the all powerful, very private world 117 00:08:35,200 --> 00:08:39,640 Speaker 1: of Kim Jong Il. It had broken precedent. Kim children 118 00:08:39,880 --> 00:08:45,199 Speaker 1: historically were neither seen nor heard, but Kim jong Nam 119 00:08:45,240 --> 00:08:50,640 Speaker 1: had drawn attention to himself and had essentially snubbed the leader. 120 00:08:51,360 --> 00:08:55,880 Speaker 1: This put the entire system at risk, and that's because 121 00:08:56,240 --> 00:09:01,400 Speaker 1: the Kim regime controls the flow of information. Every radio, 122 00:09:01,840 --> 00:09:04,959 Speaker 1: every television must be registered with the police and can 123 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:10,640 Speaker 1: only pick up domestics state sponsored channels. Loudspeakers are sprinkled 124 00:09:10,679 --> 00:09:14,640 Speaker 1: across cities and towns, playing patriotic Kim's every morning and 125 00:09:14,679 --> 00:09:19,880 Speaker 1: relaying public service announcements. Of course, activists outside of the 126 00:09:19,880 --> 00:09:23,320 Speaker 1: country try to break through this wall of propaganda. That's 127 00:09:23,320 --> 00:09:26,760 Speaker 1: why the thirty parallel the line separating North and South 128 00:09:26,840 --> 00:09:30,679 Speaker 1: Korea see some of the most intense radio jamming activity 129 00:09:30,800 --> 00:09:36,040 Speaker 1: in the world. In two thousand one, as news agencies 130 00:09:36,080 --> 00:09:40,040 Speaker 1: buzzed about Kim Jong Nam's deportation, Kim Jong Il could 131 00:09:40,080 --> 00:09:42,880 Speaker 1: do little more than cross his fingers and hope this 132 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:47,960 Speaker 1: barricade of propaganda would hold. In other words, the Tokyo 133 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:52,480 Speaker 1: Disneyland incident created a lot of unnecessary stress for Kim 134 00:09:52,559 --> 00:09:55,880 Speaker 1: Jong NAMA's father. But was that the reason he was 135 00:09:55,920 --> 00:09:59,480 Speaker 1: passed over as successor? Was that why he was kicked 136 00:09:59,480 --> 00:10:05,760 Speaker 1: out of the country. Maybe, But there's another theory, because 137 00:10:05,800 --> 00:10:09,080 Speaker 1: a few years earlier, the people who had raised Kim 138 00:10:09,120 --> 00:10:14,160 Speaker 1: jong nam had done the unthinkable, and then he began 139 00:10:14,280 --> 00:10:17,720 Speaker 1: having ideas that not only threatened the stability of the regime, 140 00:10:18,720 --> 00:10:24,360 Speaker 1: it threatened the life of his father. In the early 141 00:10:24,440 --> 00:10:28,400 Speaker 1: nineteen nineties, just as Kim jong Nam was gaining prominence 142 00:10:28,400 --> 00:10:34,319 Speaker 1: in the regime, Residence Number fifteen was in turmoil. All over. 143 00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:39,680 Speaker 1: Members of Cheng Nam's family were defecting at an alarming rate. 144 00:10:40,800 --> 00:10:46,040 Speaker 1: The exodus started in two when Kim's cousin I Hanyon 145 00:10:46,559 --> 00:10:50,160 Speaker 1: had been studying in Switzerland. One day, the cousin made 146 00:10:50,160 --> 00:10:53,640 Speaker 1: a fateful call to the South Korean embassy and asked 147 00:10:53,640 --> 00:10:58,240 Speaker 1: for asylum. According to Dr Sung Yun Lee, he would 148 00:10:58,240 --> 00:11:02,439 Speaker 1: do everything to hide from the game. This person changed 149 00:11:02,520 --> 00:11:07,080 Speaker 1: his name, underwent cosmetic surgery so that he would not 150 00:11:07,120 --> 00:11:10,880 Speaker 1: be recognized by North Korean spies and the North Korean state. 151 00:11:11,480 --> 00:11:15,840 Speaker 1: Back in Kiongyang, news of ease defection became a closely 152 00:11:15,960 --> 00:11:20,000 Speaker 1: guarded secret. A member of the royal family defecting to 153 00:11:20,080 --> 00:11:24,079 Speaker 1: the South. It was an embarrassing disgrace, the kind that 154 00:11:24,160 --> 00:11:28,800 Speaker 1: could stay Kim Jong Il's reputation. The problem was he 155 00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:33,600 Speaker 1: did not keep a low profile. By the nineties, he 156 00:11:33,679 --> 00:11:37,600 Speaker 1: was struggling to make money, so he began leaking news 157 00:11:37,600 --> 00:11:41,120 Speaker 1: to the press, earning an income by telling stories about 158 00:11:41,160 --> 00:11:44,960 Speaker 1: the regime. He often talked about Kim Jong Nam's mother, 159 00:11:45,440 --> 00:11:49,480 Speaker 1: who had been exiled to Russia. He was also making 160 00:11:49,520 --> 00:11:53,840 Speaker 1: regular calls to his mother, Kim Jong Nam's aunt, and 161 00:11:53,880 --> 00:11:58,640 Speaker 1: after just two months of conversations, he convinced her to 162 00:11:58,720 --> 00:12:03,960 Speaker 1: defect as well. And then sometime in the mid ninety nineties, 163 00:12:04,400 --> 00:12:08,480 Speaker 1: this nephew of Kim Jong wrote an expose a book 164 00:12:08,720 --> 00:12:13,880 Speaker 1: on the royal family, which embarrassed Kim Jong. He published 165 00:12:13,960 --> 00:12:18,199 Speaker 1: a tell all book about life behind the palace walls, 166 00:12:19,120 --> 00:12:22,079 Speaker 1: a book you should know that became the source for 167 00:12:22,120 --> 00:12:25,240 Speaker 1: a lot of palace intrigue you've heard in this podcast. 168 00:12:26,440 --> 00:12:30,440 Speaker 1: But despite changing his name and his appearance, he could 169 00:12:30,480 --> 00:12:36,040 Speaker 1: not escape the regime's wrath. He was standing outside his 170 00:12:36,120 --> 00:12:41,520 Speaker 1: home when gunshots reign. He was assassinated by North Korean 171 00:12:41,600 --> 00:12:46,720 Speaker 1: agents in Seoul, just one day before Kim Jong his birthday, 172 00:12:46,720 --> 00:12:50,760 Speaker 1: which is a major national holiday. News of his murder 173 00:12:50,840 --> 00:12:54,600 Speaker 1: shocked everybody who had once lived in Residence Number fifteen. 174 00:12:55,520 --> 00:12:59,280 Speaker 1: He's mother, who had defected while visiting Geneva a year earlier, 175 00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:03,880 Speaker 1: went into hiding in the European countryside. Like her son, 176 00:13:04,360 --> 00:13:07,360 Speaker 1: she too would write a book that embarrassed the regime. 177 00:13:08,080 --> 00:13:12,439 Speaker 1: In it, she compared palace life to jail. Even if 178 00:13:12,440 --> 00:13:16,080 Speaker 1: there were plenty of books and I could take twelve 179 00:13:16,160 --> 00:13:21,160 Speaker 1: baths a day and eat all kinds of delicacies, the 180 00:13:21,280 --> 00:13:28,720 Speaker 1: residents was a prison to me. To this day, nobody 181 00:13:28,760 --> 00:13:32,120 Speaker 1: knows where she is or if she's dead or alive. 182 00:13:33,360 --> 00:13:37,719 Speaker 1: But the most shocking defection was the escape of Kim 183 00:13:37,800 --> 00:13:45,560 Speaker 1: Jong Nam's childhood playmate Inamo. She fled the country and 184 00:13:45,600 --> 00:13:48,480 Speaker 1: in a great risk to her own life, she too 185 00:13:48,520 --> 00:13:52,280 Speaker 1: wrote a memoir detailing the ins and outs of palace life. 186 00:13:53,080 --> 00:13:56,920 Speaker 1: I was terrified of being found and taken back to 187 00:13:56,960 --> 00:14:02,360 Speaker 1: North Korea, of being taken home in the bag. I 188 00:14:02,400 --> 00:14:04,960 Speaker 1: would have preferred to be killed on the spot rather 189 00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:09,439 Speaker 1: than suffer alife in the minds or the countryside. By 190 00:14:09,440 --> 00:14:14,760 Speaker 1: the countryside, she means a prison camp. As far as 191 00:14:14,800 --> 00:14:19,400 Speaker 1: we know, Ena Walk remains in hiding, probably somewhere in France. 192 00:14:20,240 --> 00:14:24,680 Speaker 1: Even sleuthing journalists like Na Fifield have had trouble reaching her. 193 00:14:25,280 --> 00:14:28,440 Speaker 1: I was not able to speak with Na Mock. She 194 00:14:28,680 --> 00:14:31,320 Speaker 1: declined to talk to me. I did speak to her 195 00:14:31,400 --> 00:14:35,560 Speaker 1: husband several times, who said to me, you know, she 196 00:14:35,720 --> 00:14:40,680 Speaker 1: fears for her life. Her half or her cousin, who 197 00:14:40,720 --> 00:14:44,080 Speaker 1: was really like her brother, has been assassinated. Her own 198 00:14:44,160 --> 00:14:47,760 Speaker 1: brother had been assassinated in South Korea, so she did 199 00:14:47,800 --> 00:14:52,160 Speaker 1: not see any benefit to speaking about the North Korean 200 00:14:52,160 --> 00:14:55,600 Speaker 1: regime in public. As Ena Walk put in her last 201 00:14:55,680 --> 00:15:00,840 Speaker 1: public interview, being exposed means death to our family way, 202 00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:05,560 Speaker 1: and she's right. In North Korea, having a single defector 203 00:15:05,640 --> 00:15:09,320 Speaker 1: in your family can leave a deadly stain one your 204 00:15:09,360 --> 00:15:14,000 Speaker 1: family cannot escape, and by the late nineties, Kim Jong 205 00:15:14,080 --> 00:15:18,240 Speaker 1: Nam had at least three. If you do something that's wrong, 206 00:15:18,480 --> 00:15:22,040 Speaker 1: your entire family will also pay the price. That's Dr 207 00:15:22,120 --> 00:15:27,440 Speaker 1: Sandra Fahey, I'm an associate professor at Carlton University. She's 208 00:15:27,440 --> 00:15:31,880 Speaker 1: been studying North Korea's human rights abuses for decades, and 209 00:15:32,240 --> 00:15:36,960 Speaker 1: as she explains, it punishes and prevents defectors in a 210 00:15:37,160 --> 00:15:43,240 Speaker 1: unique way. North Korea operates something that others produous love abuse. 211 00:15:44,120 --> 00:15:47,440 Speaker 1: They will take the fact that you care for others 212 00:15:48,040 --> 00:15:51,480 Speaker 1: and they will use that against you. So you care 213 00:15:51,680 --> 00:15:55,800 Speaker 1: for your family, and that is a great way to 214 00:15:55,920 --> 00:15:59,080 Speaker 1: control what you do. So you might want to leave 215 00:15:59,720 --> 00:16:02,880 Speaker 1: North Korea, but you can't do that because if you do, 216 00:16:03,960 --> 00:16:08,920 Speaker 1: your freedom comes at the cost of the life sometimes 217 00:16:08,960 --> 00:16:13,320 Speaker 1: of others. In other words, if you defect, your loved 218 00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:16,640 Speaker 1: ones will get sent to a prison camp. It will 219 00:16:16,680 --> 00:16:21,080 Speaker 1: also tarnish your entire bloodline. Thanks to a cast system 220 00:16:21,160 --> 00:16:25,640 Speaker 1: invented by Kim Il sung. This houngboon system I translated 221 00:16:25,720 --> 00:16:30,160 Speaker 1: to mean like political ingredients, as if your politics is 222 00:16:30,160 --> 00:16:33,240 Speaker 1: in your DNA and it's something that you inherit. This 223 00:16:33,400 --> 00:16:38,080 Speaker 1: Houngboon is a system of classification. Rather than separating people 224 00:16:38,160 --> 00:16:42,400 Speaker 1: by economic class, it separates citizens by their loyalty to 225 00:16:42,480 --> 00:16:46,720 Speaker 1: the regime, and it's treated as natural as if it's 226 00:16:46,880 --> 00:16:50,560 Speaker 1: ingrained in your DNA. This DNA cannot be altered, no 227 00:16:50,640 --> 00:16:55,600 Speaker 1: amount of bribing, no amount of connections. Today, a computer 228 00:16:55,680 --> 00:17:00,320 Speaker 1: database tracks every single person in North Korea, classifying them 229 00:17:00,320 --> 00:17:06,119 Speaker 1: into fifty one different categories which determine whether they are loyal, wavering, 230 00:17:07,040 --> 00:17:12,640 Speaker 1: or hostile. You're a place within this hungboun determines everything. 231 00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:16,560 Speaker 1: This sung bun system determines what type of job you 232 00:17:16,560 --> 00:17:22,560 Speaker 1: can get, what individuals you can marry, where you can live, 233 00:17:23,080 --> 00:17:26,359 Speaker 1: and the worst part is people can do little to 234 00:17:26,520 --> 00:17:31,320 Speaker 1: change their Basically, if your family had any connections with 235 00:17:31,359 --> 00:17:36,639 Speaker 1: the South Koreans um or with the Japanese the Americans 236 00:17:36,680 --> 00:17:40,760 Speaker 1: during the Korean War, then you are considered a collaborator, 237 00:17:40,760 --> 00:17:46,800 Speaker 1: a trader, suspicious and of course your children would inherit 238 00:17:46,880 --> 00:17:52,720 Speaker 1: this classification too. Today, most North Koreans live in the 239 00:17:52,960 --> 00:17:59,840 Speaker 1: terrifying middle zone. Classified as wavering, who are considered hostile 240 00:18:00,359 --> 00:18:03,959 Speaker 1: are sent straight to re education camps or to prison camps. 241 00:18:05,680 --> 00:18:09,560 Speaker 1: Kim jong Nam was lucky. He was born to the 242 00:18:09,680 --> 00:18:16,040 Speaker 1: strongest hungband possible. But after three close family members, especially 243 00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:19,119 Speaker 1: those who had raised him as a child, had defected, 244 00:18:19,560 --> 00:18:24,400 Speaker 1: his hungband status was permanently marked by an asterisk if 245 00:18:24,480 --> 00:18:28,560 Speaker 1: loyalty was ingrained in DNA. What did that say about 246 00:18:28,640 --> 00:18:32,520 Speaker 1: Kim Jong Nam? If his family could not be trusted. 247 00:18:32,920 --> 00:18:37,359 Speaker 1: Could anybody trust the prince himself? It appears that in 248 00:18:37,400 --> 00:18:42,320 Speaker 1: the upper echelons of North Korean society the answer was no. 249 00:18:43,119 --> 00:18:44,880 Speaker 1: I've been trying. I've been trying to get this out 250 00:18:44,880 --> 00:18:49,840 Speaker 1: for years. That again is Michael Madden, the North Korea Watcher, 251 00:18:50,560 --> 00:18:54,439 Speaker 1: and he claims that in the early two thousand's rumor 252 00:18:54,560 --> 00:18:58,480 Speaker 1: spread that somebody in the regime was out to get 253 00:18:58,560 --> 00:19:03,159 Speaker 1: Kim Jong nams first assassination plot against Kim Jong nab 254 00:19:03,720 --> 00:19:07,440 Speaker 1: the first credible threat on his life was in two 255 00:19:07,520 --> 00:19:11,560 Speaker 1: thousand four, okay, And so that basically tells us that 256 00:19:11,640 --> 00:19:14,960 Speaker 1: there were other North Korean elites that were a threat. 257 00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:20,080 Speaker 1: But here's the question. Who were these elites trying to 258 00:19:20,200 --> 00:19:25,000 Speaker 1: kill Kim Jong nam? And why? Was it because his 259 00:19:25,119 --> 00:19:30,000 Speaker 1: trip to Disneyland had jeopardized the so called screen? Was 260 00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:34,480 Speaker 1: it because of his family's history of defecting, or was 261 00:19:34,560 --> 00:19:38,920 Speaker 1: there another reason one that might put the whole regime 262 00:19:39,359 --> 00:20:01,280 Speaker 1: at risk. Kiml Song never intended it to be this way, 263 00:20:01,680 --> 00:20:05,320 Speaker 1: at least not in the beginning. There was never supposed 264 00:20:05,359 --> 00:20:09,040 Speaker 1: to be a cast system in North Korea. The DPRK, 265 00:20:09,400 --> 00:20:14,000 Speaker 1: after all, was supposed to be a class free utopia. 266 00:20:14,359 --> 00:20:17,879 Speaker 1: And there was a reason communism was such an attractive 267 00:20:17,920 --> 00:20:22,200 Speaker 1: option to Koreans in the early nine hundreds. For centuries, 268 00:20:22,560 --> 00:20:26,320 Speaker 1: the peninsula was arguably the most class divided region on 269 00:20:26,359 --> 00:20:31,119 Speaker 1: the planet. The entire society was divided into hereditary ranks, 270 00:20:31,840 --> 00:20:35,199 Speaker 1: the land owning aristocrats or young bun on top, the 271 00:20:35,280 --> 00:20:39,280 Speaker 1: white collar bureaucrats or tongueing in the middle, the peasants 272 00:20:39,359 --> 00:20:42,520 Speaker 1: and so called commoners or tongue men, and chung men 273 00:20:42,680 --> 00:20:47,280 Speaker 1: near the bottom. And below all that the pick jung, 274 00:20:48,119 --> 00:20:53,679 Speaker 1: the untouchables thrust into this hierarchy where the Doobe people 275 00:20:53,720 --> 00:20:56,240 Speaker 1: stuck in what was the world's longest running system of 276 00:20:56,320 --> 00:21:01,560 Speaker 1: chattel slavery in Korea, slavery acid for more than one thousand, 277 00:21:01,600 --> 00:21:06,600 Speaker 1: five hundred uninterrupted years. By its height in the sixteen hundreds, 278 00:21:06,800 --> 00:21:09,560 Speaker 1: slaves were estimated to make up thirty percent of the 279 00:21:09,600 --> 00:21:16,320 Speaker 1: peninsula's population. In Slavery was legally abolished and the class 280 00:21:16,320 --> 00:21:24,239 Speaker 1: system in eighteen nine, but culturally little changed. So you 281 00:21:24,240 --> 00:21:28,000 Speaker 1: can probably understand why in the early twentieth century the 282 00:21:28,080 --> 00:21:31,840 Speaker 1: promise of a classless communist society held such a lure. 283 00:21:32,680 --> 00:21:36,320 Speaker 1: These socialist sympathies were only heightened by a rising tide 284 00:21:36,320 --> 00:21:40,440 Speaker 1: of nationalism. By the time Cameo Song came around, the 285 00:21:40,520 --> 00:21:45,919 Speaker 1: Korean Peninsula had been colonized and brutalized by Japanese settlers 286 00:21:45,960 --> 00:21:49,720 Speaker 1: for decades leading up to World War Two. The Japanese 287 00:21:49,760 --> 00:21:54,959 Speaker 1: occupation still stirs resentment in both the North and south. 288 00:21:55,680 --> 00:22:01,280 Speaker 1: The Japanese were horrific to Koreans. That again is Dr 289 00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:07,200 Speaker 1: Benjamin Young. They had made Koreans learn their non native language, 290 00:22:07,320 --> 00:22:10,919 Speaker 1: They made them adopt Japanese name, They made them basically 291 00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:15,080 Speaker 1: kind of get rid of their Korean nous. Koreans were 292 00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:19,359 Speaker 1: forced to worship at Shinto shrines and watched helplessly as 293 00:22:19,400 --> 00:22:24,040 Speaker 1: the Japanese destroyed thousands of cultural artifacts and historical documents. 294 00:22:25,080 --> 00:22:28,480 Speaker 1: Native trees and plants were leveled to make room for 295 00:22:28,680 --> 00:22:33,120 Speaker 1: non native species. The Royal Palace In's home, which had 296 00:22:33,119 --> 00:22:38,119 Speaker 1: been erected in the thirteen hundreds, was partially destroyed. The 297 00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:42,920 Speaker 1: human cost was jarring. Nearly a million Koreans were sent 298 00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:48,600 Speaker 1: to Japan and forced into labor. Resistors were executed back home. 299 00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:54,760 Speaker 1: Taxas skyrocketed, forcing Korean landowners to give up ancestral land. 300 00:22:55,480 --> 00:22:59,920 Speaker 1: Japanese settlers swooped in and by the nineteen thirties controlled 301 00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:04,840 Speaker 1: majority of the country's farmland. Millions of Koreans would be 302 00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:10,600 Speaker 1: denied basic rights from rations to meal delivery simply because 303 00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:16,040 Speaker 1: they had the wrong names. Untold numbers would starve. During 304 00:23:16,040 --> 00:23:19,399 Speaker 1: World War Two, the Imperial Japanese Army would force up 305 00:23:19,440 --> 00:23:23,320 Speaker 1: to four hundred thousand Korean girls and women into sex 306 00:23:23,400 --> 00:23:31,639 Speaker 1: slavery as so called comfort women. In nineteen when Kimio 307 00:23:31,640 --> 00:23:34,960 Speaker 1: Song was just six years old, he saw the brutality 308 00:23:35,040 --> 00:23:40,040 Speaker 1: of the Japanese occupation first hand. His father had been 309 00:23:40,200 --> 00:23:45,439 Speaker 1: arrested and imprisoned for joining a pro Korean organization. On 310 00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:49,000 Speaker 1: the day of his father's release, the young Kim waited 311 00:23:49,040 --> 00:23:53,960 Speaker 1: anxiously outside the prison. His father emerged from the seal gates, 312 00:23:54,680 --> 00:23:59,240 Speaker 1: his body covered in wounds and bruises. He could barely walk. 313 00:24:00,520 --> 00:24:05,159 Speaker 1: According to Chimio Sung's official memoirs, his father vowed to 314 00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:12,040 Speaker 1: take revenge. The enemy must be made to pay for 315 00:24:12,160 --> 00:24:20,880 Speaker 1: our blood, even if we must die. Kimilsung's father wouldn't 316 00:24:20,880 --> 00:24:24,920 Speaker 1: be the first or last family member abused in prison. 317 00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:30,119 Speaker 1: In one of Kimil Song's uncles joined three men and 318 00:24:30,240 --> 00:24:36,040 Speaker 1: ambushed a Japanese police officer, shooting and killing him. After 319 00:24:36,119 --> 00:24:38,280 Speaker 1: the murder, the men ran to a family friend in 320 00:24:38,320 --> 00:24:42,719 Speaker 1: desperation for a place to hide. The friend graciously offered 321 00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:46,040 Speaker 1: the fugitives a place to lie low as the Japanese searched, 322 00:24:46,840 --> 00:24:50,800 Speaker 1: but it didn't take much time before the authority showed 323 00:24:50,880 --> 00:24:55,160 Speaker 1: up at the door and put the assailants in handcuffs. 324 00:24:55,359 --> 00:24:59,800 Speaker 1: The men had been duped. The family friend, it turns out, 325 00:25:00,280 --> 00:25:05,240 Speaker 1: was an informant, a secret agent for the Japanese. As 326 00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:09,280 Speaker 1: a result, Chimiel Sung's uncle would die in prison at 327 00:25:09,320 --> 00:25:13,720 Speaker 1: the age of thirty one. The memory of that one 328 00:25:13,800 --> 00:25:17,920 Speaker 1: man's betrayal would bake into a young Chimiel Sung's consciousness, 329 00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:22,480 Speaker 1: and the resulting paranoia, the idea that nobody, not even 330 00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:26,439 Speaker 1: your closest friends, could ever be trusted, would become a 331 00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:30,679 Speaker 1: hallmark of the North Korean state. Chimiel Song put it 332 00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:33,840 Speaker 1: this way. Even now, I say that it is good 333 00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:37,760 Speaker 1: to believe in people, but that it is mistaken to 334 00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:42,480 Speaker 1: harbor illusions about them, and that would become the other 335 00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:46,920 Speaker 1: central part of the Kim family, so called screen. Chimiel 336 00:25:46,920 --> 00:25:50,880 Speaker 1: Song realized that good pr was not enough. He would 337 00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:55,560 Speaker 1: have to exterminate every untrustworthy element of society. From root 338 00:25:56,160 --> 00:26:00,440 Speaker 1: to branch, even if that meant his own close friends 339 00:26:01,359 --> 00:26:10,919 Speaker 1: and family in Kim jong Nam was rising through the 340 00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:14,480 Speaker 1: ranks of the North Korean regime. Many of his family 341 00:26:14,520 --> 00:26:18,400 Speaker 1: members had defected to Europe and South Korea, but he 342 00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:27,040 Speaker 1: stayed home, ever loyal to his father. And then the 343 00:26:27,240 --> 00:26:34,440 Speaker 1: rains came. The downpour was relentless. One area saw eighteen 344 00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:37,960 Speaker 1: inches of rain in a single day, the equivalent of 345 00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:45,160 Speaker 1: three Hurricane Katrina's. Coal mines flooded, water crushed hydro electric plants. 346 00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:50,359 Speaker 1: Flooding wiped out nearly a million acres of farmland, causing 347 00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:55,399 Speaker 1: fifteen billion dollars in damage nearly two million tons of 348 00:26:55,440 --> 00:27:07,159 Speaker 1: grain gone. The next year, the rains fell again, and 349 00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:11,679 Speaker 1: the year after that, like a cruel joke, there was 350 00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:19,320 Speaker 1: a hellish drought. The result famine mass famine. The nineties 351 00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:23,840 Speaker 1: exacerbated UH many of these chronic instability issues. Around six 352 00:27:24,640 --> 00:27:28,520 Speaker 1: people die, Others put the number as high as two 353 00:27:28,600 --> 00:27:34,040 Speaker 1: million people or of the population. By the late nineties, 354 00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:39,560 Speaker 1: North Korea plunged into an epic humanitarian crisis. By the 355 00:27:39,600 --> 00:27:43,680 Speaker 1: famine's peak, the country's gross national product would be cut 356 00:27:43,720 --> 00:27:48,240 Speaker 1: almost in half. This was not the North Korea Kim 357 00:27:48,320 --> 00:27:53,520 Speaker 1: Jong Nam's grandfather had imagined decades earlier. Kim Il sung 358 00:27:53,600 --> 00:27:56,120 Speaker 1: had built up North Korea by riding on a deep 359 00:27:56,160 --> 00:28:01,000 Speaker 1: resentment of the Japanese and a rising tide of nationalism. 360 00:28:01,040 --> 00:28:05,480 Speaker 1: He painted his Korea as the real Korea. But what 361 00:28:05,560 --> 00:28:09,080 Speaker 1: the North Korean regime did is they really emphasized Korean as. 362 00:28:09,080 --> 00:28:11,960 Speaker 1: They said, we are going to actually be the legitimate 363 00:28:12,080 --> 00:28:14,959 Speaker 1: Korean state. We are going to be the most Korean 364 00:28:14,960 --> 00:28:18,080 Speaker 1: of the two Koreas. It helped that Kim Il sung 365 00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:22,879 Speaker 1: was a bona fide folk hero Korean Davy Crockett. He 366 00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:26,920 Speaker 1: was born in poverty, a humble church organist who bravely 367 00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:29,679 Speaker 1: fought the Japanese and climbed the ranks to become one 368 00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:33,359 Speaker 1: of the fiercest fighters in the rebellion. And the truth 369 00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:39,520 Speaker 1: is it made Kim Il sung immediately popular. Better Yet, Kim, 370 00:28:39,560 --> 00:28:43,160 Speaker 1: being a good communist, promised to give the oppressed Korean 371 00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:48,160 Speaker 1: underclass land. At the time of his installment, low class 372 00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:53,080 Speaker 1: peasants made up sev of North Korea's population. He gave 373 00:28:53,120 --> 00:28:57,880 Speaker 1: them land in just three weeks. The reform was one 374 00:28:57,880 --> 00:29:02,240 Speaker 1: of the most abrupt surges of upward mobility in human history, 375 00:29:02,640 --> 00:29:08,800 Speaker 1: health care and schooling became free, and universal literacy practically vanished. 376 00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:13,800 Speaker 1: A law upholding the quote triple subordination of women was repealed, 377 00:29:14,120 --> 00:29:18,560 Speaker 1: allowing people to marry outside their traditional class. The centrally 378 00:29:18,600 --> 00:29:21,680 Speaker 1: planned economy. It worked for quite a long period of 379 00:29:21,680 --> 00:29:25,480 Speaker 1: time in North Korea. When the German American journalists Bernard 380 00:29:25,560 --> 00:29:29,240 Speaker 1: Krisher visited North Korea, he was shocked to find well 381 00:29:29,320 --> 00:29:34,600 Speaker 1: supported citizens living lives of happy simplicity. He described it 382 00:29:34,640 --> 00:29:38,120 Speaker 1: as quote one big kibbutz. This is a period that 383 00:29:38,160 --> 00:29:41,480 Speaker 1: was looked upon quite finally by many North Koreans because 384 00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:44,040 Speaker 1: they had their three bowls of rice a day, and 385 00:29:44,120 --> 00:29:49,720 Speaker 1: they had a roof to live under. After decades of 386 00:29:49,760 --> 00:29:54,400 Speaker 1: oppression from a foreign power, many North Koreans had experienced 387 00:29:54,480 --> 00:30:00,560 Speaker 1: a genuine uplift. The economy was roaring too. In um 388 00:30:00,880 --> 00:30:04,200 Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties, you could say that North Korea's economic 389 00:30:04,280 --> 00:30:07,880 Speaker 1: output was ahead of South Korea. North Korea's standard of 390 00:30:07,920 --> 00:30:12,320 Speaker 1: living would beat South Korea and China for decades. North 391 00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:16,040 Speaker 1: Korea's gross national product would continue to wallop South Korea 392 00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:21,440 Speaker 1: until the country used twice as much energy per capita 393 00:30:21,520 --> 00:30:26,040 Speaker 1: in the South. It's citizens even consumed more calories per 394 00:30:26,120 --> 00:30:29,160 Speaker 1: day than those in the South. It helped that North 395 00:30:29,240 --> 00:30:34,640 Speaker 1: Korea sat on a pile of natural resources gold, tungsten, iron, 396 00:30:34,800 --> 00:30:38,160 Speaker 1: and anthra site It's heavy industry could build top of 397 00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:42,640 Speaker 1: the line hydroelectric and manufacturing plants. If you could look 398 00:30:42,720 --> 00:30:48,760 Speaker 1: past the cartoonish propaganda and psychotically sycophantic leader worship, North 399 00:30:48,840 --> 00:30:52,000 Speaker 1: Korea looked like one of the fastest, growing, most advanced 400 00:30:52,040 --> 00:30:56,200 Speaker 1: countries in East Asia. But Kim Il sung, so called screen, 401 00:30:56,960 --> 00:31:00,800 Speaker 1: could only conceal so much a lot. This was also, 402 00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:05,000 Speaker 1: you know, quite shallow in terms of North Korea's self 403 00:31:05,040 --> 00:31:09,280 Speaker 1: reliance and Koreans because they were receiving huge amounts of 404 00:31:09,320 --> 00:31:12,880 Speaker 1: developmental aid from the Soviet Union into a lesser extent, China. 405 00:31:13,520 --> 00:31:17,200 Speaker 1: North Korea's success was bankrolled by two of the world's 406 00:31:17,360 --> 00:31:24,040 Speaker 1: largest communist superpowers, and that created issues because in the 407 00:31:24,120 --> 00:31:28,800 Speaker 1: late nineteen fifties, the USSR and China began quarreling about 408 00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:33,520 Speaker 1: how to move communism forward. Kemel sung did not want 409 00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:36,520 Speaker 1: to be stuck between the two. North Korea had a 410 00:31:36,560 --> 00:31:40,080 Speaker 1: painful history of colonization, and he didn't want to be 411 00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:45,360 Speaker 1: pushed around by anybody, so he made a decision. He 412 00:31:45,480 --> 00:31:52,600 Speaker 1: laid out a new political philosophy, a hodgepodge of Marxism, Latinism, Confucianism, Stalinism, 413 00:31:52,680 --> 00:31:56,560 Speaker 1: and nationalism that he believed would help North Korea maintain 414 00:31:56,680 --> 00:32:04,120 Speaker 1: its independence. It was called to It's impossible to overstate 415 00:32:04,240 --> 00:32:08,800 Speaker 1: just how important Toute was and is to North Korea's 416 00:32:08,840 --> 00:32:14,120 Speaker 1: approach to well everything. Some say it's a really central 417 00:32:14,200 --> 00:32:17,720 Speaker 1: to how North Korea orient itself in the world. It's 418 00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:23,800 Speaker 1: also impossible to overstate how this ideology would cripple the country. 419 00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:29,720 Speaker 1: Touche meant independence in all matters, political, economic, and cultural, 420 00:32:30,440 --> 00:32:34,479 Speaker 1: and that meant North Korea wouldn't depend on Russia or 421 00:32:34,640 --> 00:32:40,080 Speaker 1: China for protection. To Che compelled Chemio Sung to institute 422 00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:45,160 Speaker 1: a military first policy, prompting the state to pour endless 423 00:32:45,160 --> 00:32:48,080 Speaker 1: amounts of money into its military at the expense of 424 00:32:48,200 --> 00:32:53,200 Speaker 1: every other institution. Funds that once bolstered the Workers Party 425 00:32:53,320 --> 00:32:58,880 Speaker 1: social programs are feeding and housing people were redirected into defense. 426 00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:05,600 Speaker 1: North Korea would eventually allocate an obscene of its GDP 427 00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:10,400 Speaker 1: into its military. For comparison, the US bends three point 428 00:33:10,560 --> 00:33:17,360 Speaker 1: seven percent. The regime began blowing funds on parades, palaces, 429 00:33:17,360 --> 00:33:28,440 Speaker 1: and statues, and then Mr teared down this roar. The 430 00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:34,160 Speaker 1: Berlin Wall fell, and so too did any financial support 431 00:33:34,280 --> 00:33:38,400 Speaker 1: North Korea received from the Soviets, and North Korea got 432 00:33:38,400 --> 00:33:42,400 Speaker 1: a taste of what self reliance was really like, and 433 00:33:42,520 --> 00:33:48,320 Speaker 1: it didn't go down easily. Imports and exports dropped dramatically. 434 00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:53,520 Speaker 1: The country's oil reserves plummeted, its ability to make steel 435 00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:59,719 Speaker 1: practically vanished, the country's one strong chemical industry nearly collapsed, 436 00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:05,160 Speaker 1: Factories closed, farmland laid to waste, and then when the 437 00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:11,600 Speaker 1: rains came, any relics of communism were essentially destroyed. Socialism 438 00:34:11,640 --> 00:34:15,600 Speaker 1: became more rhetoric and a slogan rather than the official practices. 439 00:34:15,960 --> 00:34:20,040 Speaker 1: Underground black market started to spring up in North Korea. 440 00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:24,560 Speaker 1: Years later, the government would remove any mention of communism 441 00:34:24,600 --> 00:34:29,759 Speaker 1: from its constitution to check and military first became the 442 00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:36,240 Speaker 1: new official guiding principles. And Kim Jong Nam was stuck 443 00:34:36,280 --> 00:34:43,600 Speaker 1: in the middle of all of it. He was born 444 00:34:43,719 --> 00:34:48,480 Speaker 1: during and had heard about North Korea's Golden Age, a 445 00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:53,280 Speaker 1: time of growth and prosperity. But now in his twenties, 446 00:34:53,840 --> 00:34:56,720 Speaker 1: just as he was allowed to explore beyond the walls 447 00:34:56,800 --> 00:35:01,359 Speaker 1: of his palace prison, he was watching his country at 448 00:35:01,400 --> 00:35:07,040 Speaker 1: its lowest point. He watched as North Korea starved to death, 449 00:35:07,640 --> 00:35:12,960 Speaker 1: its industries crumbling, It's peaceful farming co ops breaking down. 450 00:35:14,400 --> 00:35:22,040 Speaker 1: To Kim jong Nam, it was obvious the system was outdated, broken, defunct, 451 00:35:23,080 --> 00:35:27,000 Speaker 1: and he couldn't stomach it. Kim jong Nam was tasked 452 00:35:27,040 --> 00:35:30,560 Speaker 1: with punishing people who were desperately trying to flee the 453 00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:36,360 Speaker 1: country in search of food. According to Michael Madden, the 454 00:35:36,480 --> 00:35:41,080 Speaker 1: job required Kim jong Nam to hand pick people for execution. 455 00:35:42,360 --> 00:35:46,680 Speaker 1: These people would be publicly executed and their families sent 456 00:35:46,719 --> 00:35:50,239 Speaker 1: to labor and central political detention facilities, and so Kim 457 00:35:50,320 --> 00:35:52,640 Speaker 1: jong Nam being a member of the family was a 458 00:35:52,640 --> 00:35:56,279 Speaker 1: part of that. But that kind of ruthlessness, that kind 459 00:35:56,320 --> 00:36:00,080 Speaker 1: of brutality just wasn't in Kim jong Nam's dn A. 460 00:36:01,480 --> 00:36:04,200 Speaker 1: He did not. He just did not have the personality 461 00:36:04,320 --> 00:36:07,160 Speaker 1: or temperament to do that kind of stuff. I think 462 00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:10,040 Speaker 1: it kind of broke his heart. If he had political 463 00:36:10,040 --> 00:36:13,360 Speaker 1: aspirations before, they just sort of surrendered. The kind of 464 00:36:13,400 --> 00:36:17,399 Speaker 1: died with him having to go through that. But when 465 00:36:17,480 --> 00:36:21,279 Speaker 1: Kim jong Nam looked around his own country, he saw 466 00:36:21,400 --> 00:36:26,200 Speaker 1: leaders more interested in feeding his dad's personality cult than 467 00:36:26,320 --> 00:36:32,120 Speaker 1: feeding the people. Kim jong nam knew things could be different. 468 00:36:33,080 --> 00:36:37,279 Speaker 1: China had opened up its economy, so had Vietnam, and 469 00:36:37,400 --> 00:36:42,319 Speaker 1: both were enjoying rapid growth. So Kim jong nam approached 470 00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:46,319 Speaker 1: his father with a plan. Maybe it was time to 471 00:36:46,480 --> 00:36:53,520 Speaker 1: reconsider che to reinspect the country's military first policy. Maybe 472 00:36:53,520 --> 00:36:59,440 Speaker 1: it was time to open up North Korea. In other words, 473 00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:20,200 Speaker 1: he was suggesting that his father lift the screen. It's 474 00:37:20,320 --> 00:37:26,280 Speaker 1: unclear what exactly happened next. According to Hong Kong based weekly, 475 00:37:26,840 --> 00:37:29,640 Speaker 1: Kim jong nam had been inspired by the reforms he 476 00:37:29,680 --> 00:37:34,080 Speaker 1: had read about in other communist countries. At a forum, 477 00:37:34,080 --> 00:37:37,759 Speaker 1: he spelled it out plainly. My father has asked me 478 00:37:37,800 --> 00:37:41,680 Speaker 1: to reorganize the state economy somewhat. I think there's no 479 00:37:41,760 --> 00:37:44,840 Speaker 1: other way to revive the economy than Chinese style reform 480 00:37:44,920 --> 00:37:49,080 Speaker 1: and opening. We should first set up corporations and after 481 00:37:49,200 --> 00:37:53,080 Speaker 1: that set up subsidiaries under them. If we bring about 482 00:37:53,080 --> 00:38:00,719 Speaker 1: such development, would it not lead to capitalism. It's unclear 483 00:38:00,840 --> 00:38:04,239 Speaker 1: how his father, Kim jong il, reacted to this suggestion, 484 00:38:05,080 --> 00:38:10,879 Speaker 1: but it appears he responded coldly. Years later, Kim jong 485 00:38:10,960 --> 00:38:14,960 Speaker 1: nam told a Japanese journalist, I grew further apart from 486 00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:18,520 Speaker 1: my father because SCI insisted on reform and market opening 487 00:38:18,719 --> 00:38:23,719 Speaker 1: and was eventually viewed with suspicion. In fact, Kim Jong 488 00:38:23,760 --> 00:38:27,920 Speaker 1: ill began to regret sending his firstborn son to Switzerland. 489 00:38:28,840 --> 00:38:32,640 Speaker 1: He believed it had contaminated Kim Jong Nam's mind. And 490 00:38:32,680 --> 00:38:35,839 Speaker 1: when he felt that I turned into a capitalist after 491 00:38:35,880 --> 00:38:39,839 Speaker 1: living abroad for years, he shortened the overseas education of 492 00:38:39,880 --> 00:38:46,600 Speaker 1: my brothers and sister. And that raises new questions. Maybe 493 00:38:46,680 --> 00:38:49,920 Speaker 1: Kim jong Nam wasn't passed over for the successorship because 494 00:38:49,920 --> 00:38:52,640 Speaker 1: he was caught trying to go to an amusement park, 495 00:38:53,400 --> 00:38:56,360 Speaker 1: or even because his close family had skipped town and 496 00:38:56,440 --> 00:39:00,720 Speaker 1: spilled family secrets. Was he passed over and that because 497 00:39:00,719 --> 00:39:04,920 Speaker 1: he wanted to open up the country. The basic fact 498 00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:07,840 Speaker 1: is that if North Korea ever took Kim Jong Nam's 499 00:39:07,840 --> 00:39:12,560 Speaker 1: advice to truly open up, regular North Koreans would see 500 00:39:12,640 --> 00:39:16,399 Speaker 1: life outside their her make kingdom and realize just how 501 00:39:16,440 --> 00:39:21,160 Speaker 1: oppressed they really are. If the Kim family ever dropped 502 00:39:21,160 --> 00:39:24,520 Speaker 1: the screen, the Korean people would discover that they've been 503 00:39:24,520 --> 00:39:30,080 Speaker 1: fed lies. The economy might rebound, but Kim Jong Il's 504 00:39:30,160 --> 00:39:35,640 Speaker 1: head it would be on a pike. In that case, 505 00:39:36,160 --> 00:39:40,200 Speaker 1: Kim Jong Nam didn't just have a bad idea. He 506 00:39:40,400 --> 00:39:43,680 Speaker 1: was a threat to the stability of the entire regime. 507 00:39:44,520 --> 00:39:49,239 Speaker 1: So father and son made an agreement. Told his father 508 00:39:49,280 --> 00:39:51,799 Speaker 1: told him, look, if you can get married, find a 509 00:39:51,840 --> 00:39:55,200 Speaker 1: wife here in North Korea, then you can leave the country. 510 00:39:55,239 --> 00:39:57,600 Speaker 1: But when you leave the country, you're going to be 511 00:39:57,640 --> 00:40:01,759 Speaker 1: loyal to me, and you're going to do favors for me. 512 00:40:02,239 --> 00:40:05,200 Speaker 1: You're still going to work for me. Okay, and Kim 513 00:40:05,280 --> 00:40:10,200 Speaker 1: jong Nam found a home in Macao, and and that's 514 00:40:10,200 --> 00:40:12,680 Speaker 1: how Kim jong Nam ended up where he did in 515 00:40:12,800 --> 00:40:15,960 Speaker 1: Macau with his family. It's because he made an agreement 516 00:40:16,040 --> 00:40:19,080 Speaker 1: with his father. But that doesn't mean Kim jong nam 517 00:40:19,120 --> 00:40:23,080 Speaker 1: was powerless. It seems that his father did take up 518 00:40:23,160 --> 00:40:27,879 Speaker 1: some of his ideas. The country normalized relations with thirteen 519 00:40:28,040 --> 00:40:32,640 Speaker 1: Western European countries. In two thousand one, Kim Jong il 520 00:40:32,800 --> 00:40:37,880 Speaker 1: was quoted in a party newspaper apparently admitting that change 521 00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:40,960 Speaker 1: was needed. Things are not what they used to be 522 00:40:41,040 --> 00:40:44,640 Speaker 1: in the nineteen sixties, so no one should follow the 523 00:40:44,680 --> 00:40:47,879 Speaker 1: way people used to do things in the past. More 524 00:40:47,920 --> 00:40:51,480 Speaker 1: startling was in the fall of two thousand two, Kim 525 00:40:51,520 --> 00:40:54,279 Speaker 1: Jong ille tried to court an office zone of northwest 526 00:40:54,320 --> 00:40:58,000 Speaker 1: North Korea, near the border of China to establish an 527 00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:03,160 Speaker 1: economic zone where in North Korean's could practice capitalism. Were 528 00:41:03,200 --> 00:41:07,160 Speaker 1: those ideas coming from Kim Jong Nam? There's no way 529 00:41:07,200 --> 00:41:11,560 Speaker 1: to tell, but evidence suggests that although the young Prince 530 00:41:11,680 --> 00:41:15,440 Speaker 1: was no longer living at home, he wasn't living in 531 00:41:15,480 --> 00:41:28,560 Speaker 1: exile either. The question is what was he doing next? Time? 532 00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:32,800 Speaker 1: On Big Brother, Kim Jong Nam strikes up a friendship 533 00:41:32,920 --> 00:41:37,400 Speaker 1: with an unlikely character, laying his cards on the table 534 00:41:38,400 --> 00:41:46,680 Speaker 1: and his life on the line. Big Brother is a 535 00:41:46,719 --> 00:41:50,000 Speaker 1: production of School of Humans and I Heart Radio and 536 00:41:50,120 --> 00:41:54,240 Speaker 1: hosted by me even Le Lucas. Riley is our writer, 537 00:41:54,400 --> 00:41:58,680 Speaker 1: co director and associate producer. Amelia Brock is our senior producer, 538 00:41:58,800 --> 00:42:02,880 Speaker 1: co director and at A er. Executive producers are Virginia Prescott, 539 00:42:03,080 --> 00:42:07,000 Speaker 1: Brandon Barr, Else Crowley, and Jason English. Our fact checker 540 00:42:07,120 --> 00:42:11,160 Speaker 1: is Aaron Blakemore. Music composed by Jason Todd Shannon and 541 00:42:11,239 --> 00:42:16,440 Speaker 1: Tune Weathers. Original score mixed by Vick Stafford, Audio editing 542 00:42:16,480 --> 00:42:20,800 Speaker 1: by Jesse Nice Swanger Sound design and mixed by Harper W. Harris. 543 00:42:21,480 --> 00:42:25,799 Speaker 1: Audio correction by Josh Fisher. Voice acting by Mark Chung, 544 00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:32,080 Speaker 1: June Une, Mike Coscarelli, Daniel Kim, Sage, Kim Gray, Jennifer 545 00:42:32,160 --> 00:42:36,200 Speaker 1: sun Bell, and Daniel's he Hung Kim. Special sound credit 546 00:42:36,239 --> 00:42:40,080 Speaker 1: to Quama two of freesound dot org. Special thanks to 547 00:42:40,200 --> 00:42:44,240 Speaker 1: Ryan Murdoch and Will Pearson. Sound license from the Ronald 548 00:42:44,280 --> 00:42:48,680 Speaker 1: Reagan Presidential Library and freesound dot org. If you're enjoying 549 00:42:48,680 --> 00:42:51,600 Speaker 1: the podcast, help us get the word out by leaving 550 00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:55,440 Speaker 1: a rating in your favorite podcast app. Until next time, 551 00:42:55,880 --> 00:43:01,960 Speaker 1: I'm Eden Lee. School of Humans