He bought them cars, weapons, expensive furniture and the finest food –all while their people starved.

Col. Kim Jong Ryul says he spent two decades traveling to European cities on shopping spree-missions for North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim il Sung, and then later for his son, Kim Jong Il.

Helping to lift the shroud on North Korea’s brutal and mysterious regime, the German-speaking Kim claims to have bought luxury cars, carpets and gold-plated handguns with cash sent from Pyongyang. He says Mercedes was the favorite brand of the leadership, but they also liked Lincolns and Cadillac

Kim was desperate to improve his image and, four years after coming to power, even kidnapped one of South Korea's most famous film stars, Choe Eun Hee, and her film producer-husband Shin Sang Ok.
They were forced to make a series of propaganda films for Kim, before escaping after nine years of imprisonment.

His assessment of Kim Jong Il: “He is human. But the political ideas inside his head are of the devil.”
Kim dismisses Pyongyang’s nuclear saber- rattling as “propaganda,” and he has a message for the U.S. in how to deal with the North Korean regime: “Destroy it.”
Kim is now seeking asylum in Austria, where police are already keeping a close watch over him. Considering North Korea’s history in dealing with dissidents, that’s a good thing.

"When it comes to the orchestration of terror, Kim Jong-il is a natural born genius,"
said Kim Duk Hong. But the North Korean leader relies on the support of the army and secretly re-started the country's nuclear programme in order to keep them happy, according to Kim Duk Hong.
"If Kim Jong-il gives up nuclear weapons, then he will lose the support of the people in his inner circle of power. Then it's only a matter of time before his leadership collapses," he said.
"The nuclear programme is his survival strategy. He'll never give it up, if he says he will and invites the inspectors to watch him destroy his facilities, he will be lying."

NORTH Korea's reclusive leader, Kim Jong-il, enhanced his reputation for eccentricity yesterday by starting a 12,000-mile round trip to Moscow and back by train. Kim began his visit by crossing the Russian border in a 21-carriage armoured train. His journey across seven time zones to the Russian capital through Siberia and the Urals will take more than a week and will then be repeated in reverse on the way back.