
Kim Jong-il's Sushi Chef - Mithrandir
http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201306/kim-jong-il-sushi-chef-kenji-fujimoto-adam-johnson-2013?printable=true
======
rosser
As noted by many of the other comments, this is a fascinating article in so
many different respects, but the most interesting take-away for me personally
is a little detail that shows just how far the ripples cast from a seemingly
small action can reach.

If one day, decades ago, a teenaged boy's co-worker and friend hadn't wanted
to live like "normal" folks instead of scroungers, and shared a sushi dinner
with his friend, Dennis Rodman probably wouldn't have ended up visiting the
DPRK decades later, causing all the resulting foofaraw. But for that one
little choice, a subsequent event that at least flashed across the awareness
of most of the First World, and who knows how much of the rest of it, wouldn't
have happened.

It's not necessarily something of geo-political consequence, but if that's not
the notional "butterfly flapping its wings in China", I'm not sure what is.

~~~
varjag
In some way, the butterfly effect highlights that North Korea is in meta-
stable state, and relatively minor events on few select people can effect its
political course. In the modern world, much less is governed by outliers of
chance, simply by virtue of many more agents involved.

~~~
Retric
I suspect there where many minor changes that could have prevented any of the
recent presidents from entering politics or at least running for president. Or
more strangely Bush could have easily lost the an election with a minor change
to the ballot design in a tiny area in a vary important state.

Overall I suspect that's for more impact than who's making sushi in NK as I
don't think most presidents would have gone back to Iraq for instance. And
without the Iraq war I don't think we would have the backlash that lead to
healthcare reform etc.

~~~
varjag
Yes, I'm not denying causality of real world, just saying random factors tend
to exert less influence here.

Taking America going to Iraq war, it might be a disturbing fact, but America
wanted to go at war back then. The bloodlust of a common, red-blooded, mall-
shopping American in the wake of 9/11 is the foremost reason the U.S. ended in
two prolonged conflicts. Yes the reasons for Iraq were pulled from the hat,
but the nation was eager to be deluded. Not a conspiracy of two men in DC: can
anyone really imagine the USA not invading anyone after the 9/11 attacks?

But again what's happening here is that in democracy, the influences become
averaged with certain cut-off of extremes, like a signal through a band
filter. The politics becomes statistical, as opposed to heuristic deal in
feudal countries like North Korea, and as such becomes harder to disrupt.

~~~
gwern
> Yes the reasons for Iraq were pulled from the hat, but the nation was eager
> to be deluded. Not a conspiracy of two men in DC: can anyone really imagine
> the USA not invading anyone after the 9/11 attacks?

But we _did_ : we invaded Afganistan very quickly. Honor was basically
satisfied, and that was why the Bush team had to whip up all the stories about
the secular Baathists partnering with the religious fanatics of AQ and also
were working on WMDs to attack the USA etc.

~~~
newbie12
Honor wasn't satisfied-- the top Taliban Mullah and Bin Laden both got away.
And it wasn't just the Bush team whipping up support-- Congressional Democrats
almost all voted to authorize force and the New York Times reporting supported
WMDs as well. The consensus thinking was that Saddam was a bad guy who might
have WMD, ongoing sanctions had their own human costs, and we were positioned
to take him out easily.

~~~
gwern
> Honor wasn't satisfied-- the top Taliban Mullah and Bin Laden both got away.

But then it was a man-hunt, not a war. Honor was satisfied: a country's
government which was seen as complicit and responsible was destroyed.
Quibbling about Omar or Obama is like saying that the American public wasn't
satisfied by the conquest of Japan in retribution for Pearl Harbor because the
Emperor wasn't deposed and put on trial.

> And it wasn't just the Bush team whipping up support-- Congressional
> Democrats almost all voted to authorize force and the New York Times
> reporting supported WMDs as well.

Certainly. Once the drumbeats of war started.

------
Taylorious
I don't normally upvote non-tech things on HN, but that was one of the most
fascinating articles I have read in awhile. I started to idly read it, but
immediately become engrossed.

~~~
avgarrison
You might like the book "Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea."
There's quite a few jaw dropping stories from people who defected from NK.
It's such a mysterious country, I am completely fascinated by it.

edit: a word

~~~
Taylorious
Thanks for the suggestion. I will definitely check it out. Although, I have
trouble reading those types of books (and articles) because they tend to be a
bittersweet experience. On the one hand I feel like it is sort of like a sin
to be willfully ignorant of the terrible things happening in places like NK,
but it is also incredibly depressing learning about these things and being so
powerless. For some reason the brutality women face in these places seems to
upset me the most. A few weeks ago I read a very descriptive article on witch
hunting in Papua New Guinea and thinking about it still keeps me up at night.

~~~
carlob
Pop quiz time: Papua New Guinea is one of the four countries without mandatory
paid maternity leave. What are the other three?

~~~
anonymous
East Coast, West Coast and Texas.

~~~
sneak
What's the password for that account?

------
rdtsc
Agree with others here, a very captivating read. Couldn't stop reading once I
started.

The personality of the protagonist is interesting to think about. Disturbed
individual or hero? Both? We are presented with his actions, wonder what was
going on in his head. Left his wife and kids to live for 3 years in a strange
country. Did it again for 10 years. Remarried there to someone who doesn't
speak his language. Had other kids. Left them.

A hero because, I guess there are few who would do that. Provided an
interesting insight into the inner circle (but I don't the sacrifice for
humanity's lack of information on Kim's family is what drove him). Very
disturbed person as well. The childhood probably left some pretty large scars
on him. Abandoning his family many times over is disgusting to think about,
the scars it will leave on his children are no less harsh than those left on
him by his father.

~~~
SoftwareMaven
I have a hard time calling anybody who could leave his family like that a
hero. He wasn't doing it to better their circumstances; he was doing it to
satisfy himself.

~~~
javert
Leaving your family is _nothing_ compared to providing emotional support for
someone running concentration camps, abducting sex slaves, and all the other
stuff.

------
uvdiv
_After eight years in captivity, she made a life-or-death escape from her
guards after being sent to Vienna to promote Kim's latest film._

Could someone explain how Austria permitted slaves to be held within its
borders? Is this some sort of diplomatic privilege? This would be 1986 [1].

edit: Or a parallel (?) situation, Cuban athletes "escaping" from government
minders inside the USA (2002 [2]). What power do foreign government agents
have in these situations?

[1] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choi_Eun-hee>

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Cuban_soccer_players_w...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Cuban_soccer_players_who_have_defected_to_the_United_States#2002)

~~~
DominikR
You must be seriously brain damaged to ask such a question. I am from Austria
and I can assure you that there are no diplomatic privileges to hold slaves in
my country.

~~~
DoubleMalt
I also live in Austria.

Of course there is no official way to hold slaves in Austria. However stories
of foreign diplomats that hold "household staff" under slave like condition
surface with saddening regularity.

Very often they are stripped of their passports in a country where they don't
speak the language, so their perceived options are very limited.

Being a UN seat with a lot of diplomats certainly aggravates this problem, as
do the restrictive immigration laws, that do little to protect people that
want to escape from such circumstances.

Also in the case of the actress, her perceived options might have been very
limited, while in practice the "only" thing she would have to fear after
defecting would be assassins sent after her. Scary enough.

So I also think the question shows a limited view of the world, but is not
offensive enough to accuse someone of being brain damaged.

------
epaga

         The sushi chef was leaving his apartment when he noticed the stranger outside.
         He could tell by the man's suit—black and badly made—that he was North Korean.
         Right away, the chef was nervous. Even in his midsixties, the chef is a
         formidable man: He has thick shoulders, a broad chest; the rings on
         his strong hands would one day have to be cut off. But he'd long since
         quit wearing his bulletproof vest, and the last time a North Korean made
         the journey to visit him in Japan, a decade ago, he was there to kill him.
    

Incredibly well-written first paragraph, it's been a while since I've read
such an engrossing opening to an article.

~~~
luke_s
The article is definitely great - but it never said what happened with the
stranger outside his apartment!

~~~
Stupendous
Kim Jong Il's wife convinced him not to do it:

"Kim Jong-il soon summoned him. Yes, Shogun-sama admitted, he'd sent an
assassin to Okinawa, but he urged Fujimoto to forget about it. He was still
alive, wasn't he? It was Kim's wife, Ko Young-hee, who'd reminded him of how
funny and lovable his Japanese friend had been. Thus the killer was recalled."

~~~
TobbenTM
No, that was the man who visited him later.

"..and the last time a North Korean made the journey to visit him in Japan, a
decade ago, he was there to kill him."

------
malkia
Couldn't stop reading! It reminds of "The Last King of Scotland" movie -
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455590/> about Idi Amin's personal physician.

------
mitchi
I'm still amazed at how he stayed there 20+ years and never learned Korean.

~~~
vinceguidry
He probably realized early on that it wasn't in his best interests to, and so
just turned that part of his brain off. Curiosity seems like a dangerous thing
in North Korea.

~~~
marshray
People's sense of self-interest is a strange strange thing.

------
oneiric
Can someone explain the situation that started this?

"he signed a one-year contract to teach sushi-making skills to young chefs in
Pyongyang"

Was this just in the classified ads? I thought North Korea was closed off from
the world and Japan an enemy. Was this a low point in military tensions?

Similarly what kind of flights went between Japan and DPRK?

~~~
dreen
I am guessing this was during the reign of Kim Il-sun when the country was
apparently faring a bit better, and there were less sanctions etc. Also, did
everybody in USA stop consuming sushi during war with Japan? Was it forbidden
after the Pearl Harbor?

~~~
nitrogen
Quoting a dead comment:

 _indiecore 14 minutes ago | link [dead]

I don't think they had sushi in the west then.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_sushi#Appearances_in...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_sushi#Appearances_in_the_West)

Wikipedia was pretty unhelpful but there don't seem to be many western
references until the 1950s and it probably wasn't popular until the 80s when
Japanese culture started getting big._

The term "sushi" does seem to skyrocket around 1980:
<http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=sushi>

~~~
burntsushi
@indiecore - All of your posts are dead. Looks like you've been hellbanned.
I've seen folks have success restoring their account after emailing the HN
admins. Good luck!

------
midas
Was anyone else surprised by the quality of food that the elites were/are
eating? It doesn't surprise me that they had tons of expensive possessions and
services, but I would've thought the perishable nature of food would make
getting the ingredients for gourmet cuisine nearly impossible!

------
gurkendoktor
OT, but ... I absolutely _love_ to read articles like this one, yet I'm not
interested in subscribing to GQ or buying anyone's full book. I wish there was
a tip jar below each long-form article. :(

------
egonschiele
Awesome article, awesome author. Adam Johnson's 'The Orphan Master's Son' is
about North Korea and it's the best book I've read this year:
[http://www.amazon.com/The-Orphan-Masters-Son-
ebook/dp/B004X6...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Orphan-Masters-Son-
ebook/dp/B004X6PRO6/)

------
SilasX
Kim Jong-il reveled in his enjoyment of sushi!? Does that strike anyone else
as just ... distasteful, even by his standards? That would be like Japan
opening up a McDonald's right where one of the A-bombs went off.

~~~
jpatokal
Raw fish is an integral part of Korean cuisine as well.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoe_(dish)>

~~~
snogglethorpe
Of course, technically sushi doesn't refer to raw fish...

~~~
jpatokal
Try telling that to Kim Jong-il.

------
bussiere
he may also have a kind of stockholm syndrome also.

~~~
LekkoscPiwa
isn't Stockholm Syndrome caused by circumstances vs. having it ? I.e. in
certain circumstances - like being dictator's direct employee - we all suffer
from stockholm syndrome?

~~~
MisterBastahrd
The sushi chef in question was beaten and terrorized by his drunken war-hero
father as a child. He was conditioned from birth to deal with terrible men who
had great power over him.

~~~
sneak
So was I. It didn't work. Try again.

~~~
d23
Didn't realize you became a sushi chef for Kim Jong-il and had the exact same
life experiences.

------
iblaine
Read every word...amazing story, even if some of it is embellished.

------
pasechnikk
How come the article's publishing date is July 2013?

~~~
mseebach
It will probably appear in the July edition of the magazine, which might
actually be out now. [month/year] editions rarely seem to track the actually
calendar very tightly, just like you can buy the 2014 models of cars now.

------
swartz
Great read...truly enjoyed it.

------
yoster
This article is fantastic. I did not like the fact that the sushi chef was a
scumbag who created families in different countries and abandoned them which
the author called out. He even complicated doing it a third time at the end of
the article due to his greediness. I hope he does go back to North Korea and
runs out of luck.

~~~
yoster
contemplated _

