Ahh, to eat "toro" that fresh!
"He particularly enjoyed sashimi so fresh that he could start eating the fish as its mouth is still gasping and the tail is still thrashing," Fujimoto said. "I sliced the fish so as not to puncture any of its vital organs, so of course it was still moving. Kim Jong Il was delighted. He would eat it with gusto."
The Dear Leader, On a Platter
Sushi Chef's Book Details Kim Jong Il's Many Purported Indulgences
By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, March 16, 2004; Page A11
TOKYO -- For North Korea's ruler, Kim Jong Il, the latest tell-all book on the shelves in Japan is the rawest of betrayals: the confessions of the Dear Leader's own sushi chef.
Lured to Pyongyang from the sushi bars of Tokyo in 1982 by a Japanese trading company and a $5,000 a month contract, the 56-year-old Japanese chef caught the eye of Kim Jong Il a few years later and for more than a decade catered to Kim's exotic tastes.
Today he is back in Japan, and under his pen name, Kenji Fujimoto, wrote a best-selling memoir, "I Was Kim Jong Il's Cook." While North Korea is dependent on international food aid so that millions of its people do not starve, Fujimoto described Kim -- a despot to some, demigod to others -- as a sushi chef's dream: the ultimate gourmand.
"He particularly enjoyed sashimi so fresh that he could start eating the fish as its mouth is still gasping and the tail is still thrashing," Fujimoto said. "I sliced the fish so as not to puncture any of its vital organs, so of course it was still moving. Kim Jong Il was delighted. He would eat it with gusto."
Fujimoto agreed to be interviewed in a central Japanese town on the condition that the location not be disclosed. He said he still fears North Korean spies are on his trail because the end of his tenure in Pyongyang was not mutually agreed upon. The burly cook won permission to leave Pyongyang, he said, after telling Kim a fish tale about heading off to stock the palace larders with fresh Japanese sea urchin for a tasty new dish.
Fujimoto's book about life inside the Dear Leader's kitchen -- published last year in Japanese and Korean -- has piqued the interest of intelligence agencies. Japanese intelligence and foreign diplomatic officials following North Korea characterized Fujimoto's accounts as being largely credible, describing the book as adding nuances and coloring in details to long-held views of one of the world's most bizarre leaders.
Mostly, though, North Korea observers are feasting on Fujimoto's generous helpings of Kim's self-indulgent life.
Fujimoto tells of an episode in 1994 -- the year Kim became head of state after the death of his father, Kim Il Sung -- when he was invited to attend one of Kim's notorious "pleasure parties." Holding court while sporting his trademark bouffant hair and chunk heels, Kim beamed with excitement as his top aides boogied to American dance music with shocked young women who had been ordered by Kim to strip naked. There were strobe lights and a disco ball hanging that evening from the ceiling of the Dear Leader's lavish Sincheon guesthouse south of Pyongyang.
"Kim Jong Il told the women to take off their clothes," Fujimoto said. Kim pointed at senior aides one by one, commanding them to dance. "You can dance, but don't touch. If you touch, you are thieves," Kim told the aides, according to Fujimoto.
"Mr. Kim himself would not dance," continued Fujimoto, who was dressed all in black on a recent afternoon. "Kim Jong Il liked to watch." Fujimoto said he was dazzled by Kim's massive liquor cellar, stocked with nearly 10,000 bottles. There was Johnnie Walker Swing scotch and Hennessy XO cognac. To satisfy the Dear Leader's demanding tastes, Fujimoto was sent on international shopping trips, hauling back winter melons from China, pork from Denmark, caviar from Iran and Uzbekistan, but especially the finest sushi from Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market, the largest in the world.
Fujimoto said Kim once dispatched him to Tokyo's upscale Mitsukoshi department store to pick up $100 worth of his favorite rice cakes filled with mugwort. The trip itself, including airfare through Beijing -- there are no direct flights between Tokyo and Pyongyang -- and hotel expenses, cost roughly $1,500.
But Kim relished his meals, and could move himself to tears with his own toasts, often getting tipsy and, later, wistful. During fragile moments, Fujimoto said, Kim would often bemoan that Kim Jong Chul, his 22-year old son, would never rule because he had turned out to be "like a girl."
Fujimoto said Kim doted on his youngest son -- Kim Jong Woon, 18, who looks like the North Korean leader. When both sons became interested in basketball, Kim launched a nationwide campaign to spread it around North Korea, building several NBA-regulation courts in Pyongyang. "I would sometimes be the coach at the games," Fujimoto said. "They were great boys. [But] Kim Jong Woon will be his father's successor. Everyone used to say it. He looked and acted just like him."
Fujimoto said Kim was a fan of Mel Gibson, enjoying screenings of the Australian star's movies in the private theater in his palace. He is also fond of giving out his used gray or blue uniforms as gifts to friends and aides, Fujimoto said.
Given the secrecy surrounding North Korea, it is virtually impossible to confirm Fujimoto's assertions. But Japanese and foreign diplomatic and intelligence sources who have read the book and are familiar with Fujimoto's accounts are taking them very seriously.
Some of what Fujimoto describes -- including an alleged jet ski race Fujimoto said he had with Kim at a summer guesthouse -- appears to exceed the boundaries of what Kim's personal chef might have been called upon to do. But Fujimoto seldom veers into obvious exaggeration and is quick to separate what he heard from others with what he saw. "There have of course been discussions in government circles about his credibility, and the impression is that yeah, generally, this guy is for real," said a diplomatic source in Tokyo familiar with North Korea.
Noriyuki Suzuki, a leading expert on North Korea and director of Tokyo-based Radiopress Inc., which monitors North Korean media, said, "I think the book has strong credibility."
It portrays Kim in much the same way as he is described in a book about his month-long train trip across Russia in 2001. Konstantin Pulikovsky, who traveled with Kim, wrote in "Orient Express" of how the North Korean leader had live lobsters and cases of French wine flown to the train.
Fujimoto said that Kim treated him well. The North Korean leader noticed Fujimoto's interest in a lovely singer frequently called on to perform for the court. Once, for Kim's pleasure, she was ordered to fight a boxing match with another woman, and blood was spilled. Fujimoto cautiously expressed concern for the women, and Kim, with a knowing smile, later sat them together at banquets. Kim blessed their union, and photos in Fujimoto's book show Kim attending their wedding banquet in Pyongyang. When Fujimoto fled North Korea, however, he left his wife behind.
"Kim Jong Il gave me so much: He gave me a new home, let me serve his family and even brought me together with my North Korean wife," Fujimoto said. "But I know he will never forgive me for my betrayal. Sometimes I do wish I could go back, but that would be rather complicated now."
Special correspondent Sachiko Sakamaki contributed to this report.
© 2004 The Washington Post Company |
