Shopping in the dictator's service

With a diplomatic passport and pockets full of cash, Kim Jong Ryul arrived in the Austrian capital Vienna for the first time in 1974. His mission: to go shopping for the North Korean leader Kim Il Sung and his clan.

"Metal detectors, poisonous gas detectors, finger print readers, all kinds of things," Kim Jong Ryul remembers. "The dictators wanted to have villas built with German and Austrian products, gold-plated, sound-proof and bullet-proof windows. I had doors and windows produced in different colors and shipped back to North Korea."

German cars for the ruling family

In the 1950s, Kim Jong Ryul studied in East Germany, where he learned German. Because of his language skills he was dispatched to Austria many times after his return by the Pyongyang regime. While the people in North Korea were starving, Kim purchased silk wall covers and marble for the dictator's fancy houses. He also ordered luxury cars for the private use of the ruling family.

"The people went hungry and did not even have one meal a day, but these dictators rode in luxury cars in the seventies," says Kim. "I was in Stuttgart-Sindelfingen many times to buy Mercedes 600 Pullman cars. Not just one, but more than ten, all armored vehicles."

These deals revolved around the North Korean embassy in Vienna. Small companies carried out the actual purchasing and took princely fees from the North Koreans, for they also ordered many goods that should not have been sold to North Korea due to sanctions. These goods had to be newly packaged and equipped with fake freight papers. Pyongyang paid lavish sums for these services. Kim Jong Ryul used to carry enormous amounts of cash because that was how he had to pay for most of the deals.

False hopes

Convinced that the regime was not going to last much longer, Kim Jong Ryul defected to the West after the death of Kim Il Sung in 1994.

"I thought the dictator is dead, it won't be long until a revolution breaks out and brings democracy. I wasn't alone in this belief. Many intelligent people were convinced that North Korea was going to be done for in a few years' time, just like East Germany when the Berlin Wall fell. But of course that was all wrong."

Hiding in Austria

Kim faked an accident to cover up his disappearance in Austria because he wanted to make sure his family in North Korea would not be punished. He lived a secluded life in Austria and hardly ever left the house, as he was afraid of making contact with the authorities. He declined all invitations by his neighbors and took great care to remain healthy, because he didn't want to see a doctor either. But now, at the age of 75, Kim has given up his anonymous life and gone public with his book.

"Before I die, I want to scream one last time." The book on Kim's life, "In the Dictator's Service", is this last scream.

Author: Silke Ballweg / tb
Editor: Disha Uppal