Kim Jong Un's older bro just wants to rock to his guitar and listen to Eric Clapton. Seems like a very unlikely replacement for him:
In a series of encrypted emails in 2015, Mr. Thae — who at the time was the No. 2 diplomat in North Korea’s London Embassy — received instructions for handling a special visitor from Pyongyang: Kim Jong-chol. He wanted to attend an Eric Clapton concert there.
The leader’s brother was such a fan of Mr. Clapton that the North Korean government once made a deposit of one million euros, about $1,170,000, on a contract to invite him to perform in Pyongyang, Mr. Thae said. But the musician declined and the deposit was returned.
For the London concert, the book says, Mr. Thae was ordered to secure six tickets and two suites at one of the city’s best hotels and to make reservations at top restaurants. After the brother landed in London late at night, flying first-class via Moscow, he ordered Mr. Thae to take him straight to the HMV music store on Oxford Street and to bang on the door to have the store opened for him.
“On my way to London, all I could think of in the plane was visiting the music shop,” Mr. Thae quotes him as saying.
Mr. Kim’s brother was eventually persuaded to instead visit the shop when it opened the next day. But Mr. Thae said the trouble for him and his staff was just beginning. The brother insisted on smoking wherever and whenever he wanted. And despite all the scouting for top-notch restaurants, he also liked to eat at McDonald’s.
On the city’s Denmark Street, which was lined with guitar shops, “he was as happy as if he owned the entire world,” Mr. Thae said. At one shop Mr. Kim picked a guitar and let loose riffs that impressed the shop’s owner so much that they played an impromptu duet.
At the Clapton concert, the book recounts, Mr. Kim snatched up T-shirts, albums and other souvenirs. During the performance, he was completely taken over by the music, standing up, wildly clapping and raising his fist.
Back at the hotel, at the suggestion of the still-excited visitor, the two men and the other North Korean diplomats present drank all of the liquor in their minibars.
But during his 61 hours with the brother, Mr. Thae said, he found him to be completely sidelined from Mr. Kim’s power apparatus. Unlike the other Kim family members — who are usually referred to as “commander comrades” — he carried no such title.
The brother once sang the American song “My Way” in the car and his eyes grew misty, Mr. Thae said. “He was just a guy crazy about music and the guitar.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/23/world/asia/north-korea-kim-jong-un-book.html
