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Sympathetic farewell from Japan

Posted February. 20, 2017 07:07,   

Updated February. 20, 2017 07:16

한국어

“We want our Masao (Japanese pronunciation of Kim Jong Nam) back!”

More and more Japanese are expressing their condolences online to Kim Jong Nam who was murdered on Feb. 13, as Malaysian local press disclosed the last days of Kim and explained he had been constantly on the verge of death amid continuous threats. In recent days, a commemorating video is going viral on the Japanese streaming website, including clips titled “Farewell Jong Nam” and “Rest in Peace.” Furthermore, as the case slowly unfolds and develops into an act made by North Korea, more voices are being heard that “Kim Jong Un cannot be unpardonable.”

In 2001, Kim entered Narita International Airport with a forged passport, but was arrested and said to the press that he “wanted to visit Disneyland.” The media coverage raised public interest among the Japanese who realized “there still remains a warm-hearted North Korean.” While Japanese reporters hovered around him wherever he went, Kim politely responded to them with a smile in most cases. When asked whether he could “speak Japanese,” Kim even made a joke by replying “wakarimasen (‘I don’t know’ in Japanese).”

Kim also received spotlight from the Japanese media when he sent a heartfelt message expressing his “deepest condolences” to a close reporter a day after a mega-quake hit Japan in March 2011.

Meanwhile, during an interview with a Japanese broadcaster on Saturday, Secretary General Kim Joo-il of the London-based International North Korean Association for Human Rights and Democracy said, “In December 2015, North Korean defectors who wished to establish a refugee government asked Kim to ‘lead their government in exile,’ but was turned down as he was ‘opposed to succeeding the power.’”

“It was an inevitable tragedy, which I was always preparing for after all those hardships," said Sung Il-ki, older brother of Kim's mother Sung-Hye-rim, told the Dong-A Ilbo at his Seoul residence.

Sung told that he called his Kim's mother once in a while until she was in Moscow in the early 2000, before her death. Sung chose to stay in South Korea when his two younger sisters – Sung Hye-rim and Sung Hye-rang, mother of Lee Han-young, decided to follow their parents and headed the North before the Korean War broke out.



Won-Jae Jang peacechaos@donga.com · Ji-Young Jeong jjy2011@donga.com