Kim’s Eldest Takes Interest in South

“Send me video tapes of the annual award shows for TV drama, pop songs, and comedy programs from Korea Broadcasting System (KBS) and Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC),” “A South Korean magazine ran an article about me. I’ll have to be careful,” wrote Kim Jong Nam (photo), the eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, in an e-mail that he sent to his close aide in China in late 2002.

The person who received the e-mail was Cho Kyung Chun, a general accountant and president of the Beijing office of a trade company, which is a stronghold of North Korea’s overseas operation. Cho is a Korean-Chinese agent who worked for North Korea. Under the instruction from Pyongyang’s “International Affairs Department,” he sent various data, including South Korea’s national secrets, to the North via Chung, a 67-year-old overseas Chinese born in Taiwan and who was recently arrested.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) found yesterday that Cho “placed an order” on many occasions under direct instructions from Kim Jong Nam, apart from the official instruction from the “International Affairs Department.”

Kim Jong Nam is Interested in South Korean Movies and Broadcasts-

In its investigation into Chung, the NIS found an e-mail address that Cho created on a South Korean Internet portal site.

The NIS seized and searched Cho’s e-mail account and confirmed that Cho frequently contacted with Kim from June 2002 to March 2004. Kim wrote e-mails to Cho under the pseudonym of “Kim Chul.”

Kim asked Cho in his e-mail in December 2002 to send him videotapes of the yearly award shows for TV dramas, pop songs, and comedy programs of KBS and MBC. Also, Kim requested Cho to send him South Korean movies, “The Hidden Princess” and “Double Agent.” Just like his father, Kim Jong Nam appears to be interested in the South’s movies, broadcasts, and media.

Monitoring South Korean Media Reports?-

Kim sometimes asked for computers or toys for children, but he was mainly interested in the South’s media outlets description of him.

Most of the data that Chung, who operated in the South and was arrested on April 10, sent to the North via Cho for five years was South Korean media reports which covered the situation of the North’s ruling elites.

After the South Korean media reported that Kim tried to smuggle himself into Japan but was deported in May 2001, Chung mainly sent South Korean magazines which ran analyses of North Korean ruling elites to the North via Cho.

The NIS said that Kim wrote in an e-mail, “I read an article about me in the South’s magazine. I have to be careful in everything.”

An investigation official said, “It appears that Kim Jong Nam knows what South Korean media reported in detail.”