For 13 years Kenji Fujimoto was North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il's personal chef, keeping the tyrant well stuffed with exotic delicacies while the majority of the people starved.
In 2001 he fled North Korea and has now published a book, "Kim Jong Il's Chef," recounting the bizarre relationship he shared with the dictator.
Among his memories was a banquet featuring Kim's "Entourage of Delight" – a group of entertainers who gave command performances for him.
During the meal, while five dancers were performing a disco dance, Kim suddenly ordered the women to strip. "In awkward embarrassment they stripped down and continued their dancing in the nude," Fujimoto reported.
"After a while he turned to his cabinet staff members and instructed them 'You guys dance with them too.'"
Fujimoto was also compelled to join the dancing after being told along with the others: "You'll dance, but you won't touch. If you touch you're thieves," meaning, for Kim, that the dancers were like his daughters, and to touch them was to steal from him.
Fujimoto recalls that the dictator had an extremely discriminating palate, and recounts an incident when he served Kim sushi.
Kim told his chef that the dish tasted different.
"He had a lot to drink that evening before the meal and I suggested that maybe was the reason. He replied 'maybe.'"
Back in the kitchen Fujimoto discovered that he had used 10 grams less sugar than usual. "Kim Jong Il was the only one who noticed," he wrote.
When Kim fell off his horse and was knocked unconscious, "I'm not sure when he regained consciousness but ... from that day every evening at 10:00 p.m. for the next month five or six of his administrative staff members and I would be injected with the same pain killer Kim Jong Il was taking.
"He was afraid he would become addicted to it and he didn't want to be the only one."
Fujimoto recalled being sent to Beijing to buy a certain rice cake Kim had heard of, which contained mugwart, along with some cigarettes. Fujimoto ordered 200 rice cakes from Tokyo and took them to Beijing and then home to Pyongyang.
"Each cake cost about 100 yen but I calculated that with air and hotel expenses each one cost a whopping 1,500 yen (about $14.00)."
Fujimoto also returned with the cigs; Kim only smoked the menthols (Kim has since quit smoking, and has also "asked" the rest of North Korea to stop as well.
Fujimoto reported that he traveled widely to keep Kim's palate satisfied. He listed his itinerary and what he sought in each place: China for fruit including melons and grapes; Thailand and Malaysia for fruit; Czechoslovakia for draft beer; Denmark for pork; Iran and Uzbekistan for caviar and Japan for seafood.
The chef wrote that he had visited Kim's private residence, where the dictator kept a very large liquor cellar that held about 10,000 bottles, including Kim's favorites, Johnny Walker Swing and Hennessy cognac.
That was in the years between 1989 and 2001, when millions of North Koreans were being starved to death while Kim Jong Il fussed and fretted over his delicacy-filled menus.
In 1998, for example, while Kim was pampering his palate, it was estimated that up to 2.8 million people may have died of starvation because of North Korea's three-year famine and worsening economic crisis.
According to the BBC, Kim allowed the people to die of starvation but saw to it that his huge army ate well. The North Korean people were going hungry as the military built up rice reserves, a defector told BBC. "It's only the people who go hungry and suffer pain."
In March of 2001, looking for an excuse to get out of Kim's kitchen for good, Fujimoto showed Kim Jong Il a video of a Japanese cooking show that featured a sea urchin dish, one of the dictator's favorites. He said, "Wow, that looks good."
Fujimoto told Kim he'd go to Japan and buy sea urchins and reproduce the dish seen on the video, "Kim Jong Il replied 'That's a great idea. Go for it."
Fujimoto did, and never went back.
Editor's note:
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