TOKYO — The Japanese author of a book about Kim Jong Nam, the North Korean leader’s half brother who was killed this week at a Malaysian airport, says Kim opposed his family’s hereditary
This photo, taken May 4, 2001, shows Kim Jong Nam, exiled half brother of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, escorted by Japanese police officers at the airport in Narita, Japan. Kim Jong Nam, the outcast half brother of North Korea’s leader, told medical workers before he died Feb. 13, 2017, that he had been attacked at a Malaysian airport with a chemical spray, according to Malaysian officials. (Photo by ITSUO INOUYE/AP)
TOKYO — The Japanese author of a book about Kim Jong Nam, the North Korean leader’s half brother who was killed this week at a Malaysian airport, says Kim opposed his family’s hereditary rule and wanted economic reforms.
Tokyo-based journalist Yoji Gomi’s book “My Father, Kim Jong Il, and Me,” provides a rare view into North Korea’s ruling family, including Kim Jong Nam, who was apparently assassinated on Monday.
Gomi said Kim Jong Nam, the son of late North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il and the half brother of current leader Kim Jong Un, represented a small hope for change in the isolated communist country.
“I thought he was someone who has something meaningful to say, and perhaps bring change to North Korea,” Gomi said at a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
Their seven-year relationship began in 2004 when Gomi met Kim Jong Nam by chance at Beijing’s international airport, leading to exchanges of 150 emails and two interviews in 2011 — one in Beijing and another in Macau — totaling seven hours, Gomi said.
