Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son of the late North Korean leader Kin Jong-il, and the half brother of the country’s current leader Kim Jong-un, was assassinated at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia on February 13 this year. The intense media coverage and exposure of details regarding the incident are reminiscent of a Hollywood movie, with soul-stirring twists that fascinate many.
What is especially surprising is that Macau is actually involved in this case. Kim Jong-nam, previously considered the successor to his father, but later rejected from ascending the throne, had actually been living in Macau, which also happened to be the destination of the plane he was going to board when he was assassinated. The usually calm and glamorous Macau, which looks like it has no business in world politics, has unexpectedly become part of the background for this mysterious political event.
The sudden death of Kim Jong-nam (though some still suspect that the person assassinated was actually his double), may be regrettable for some, because he takes much valuable historical information with him into the grave as a result. Fortunately however, he left the world a wondrous book.
In 2004, the then Tokyo Shimbun’s special correspondent to Beijing, Japanese journalist Yoji Gomi encountered Kim Jong-nam at the Beijing International Airport when the former was waiting for North Korea’s chief negotiator Song Il-ho, who was on the same aircraft with Kim. He and several other Japanese reporters immediately approached Kim, gave him their name cards and conducted an ad-hoc interview.
Surprisingly, Gomi received an email from Kim two months after their encounter, and Gomi decided to continue communicating with him. He even travelled to Macau and Beijing and conducted three interviews, totaling seven hours of conversation. Over a period of eight years, (they lost touch for six years with their last communication on January 3, 2012), they exchanged more than 150 emails.
On January 20, 2012, Gomi organised the interviews and used them as a backbone – adding some objective descriptions and background analysis by political reporters from Japanese mainstream media and experienced North Korean experts – in order to publish the book My Father Kim Jong-Il and Me. This book not only contains valuable first hand information about Kim Jong-nam, a major political figure in North Korea in his youth, but it is also a pivotal reference for learning about the internal conditions in North Korea, as well as the mindset of the country’s leaders.
It is not surprising that this book captured the attention of the public when it was published, with the first 30,000 copies selling out immediately. The publisher then printed 150,000 more within ten days. It became a must-read for diplomats and intelligence personnel. The book was later published in Korean and English versions, with a traditional Chinese version published in April of that year by New Century Press in Hong Kong.
It is alleged that Kim Jong-nam had been living with his family in Macau for more than a decade. There are many stories, including one that claimed some assassins infiltrated Macau six years ago (in 2011) to kill him. He only managed to escape with his life after his bodyguard protected him. In fact, the political tango between China, the United States, Russia, North and South Korea and Japan in the previous decades revolves around the Kim dynasty, and when and how it will end is still unknown. But for writers in Macau, this book is in fact a precious “resource”, providing some room to imagine all the possibilities.
