In a rare and remarkable interview posted on YouTube, the teenage grandson of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has provided a glimpse into the secretive world of his country’s ruling dynasty.

During the interview conducted at the school in Bosnia where he studies, Kim Han-sol, nephew of current leader Kim Jong-un, refers to his uncle as “a dictator” and speaks of his wish to “make things better” for the Korean people.

Sporting wide, black-frame glasses, two studs in his left ear and a fashionable haircut, Kim also talks of his close friendships with South Korean and US students and his hopes for the Korean peninsula‘s reunification.

Born in Pyongyang in 1995, Kim described a lonely early childhood, spent mostly in the home of his mother’s family -- isolated from the grandfather he never actually met and who died in December last year.

“I always wanted to meet him, because I just wanted to know what kind of person he is,” Kim said. “I was actually waiting for him... until he passed away, hoping he would come find me, because I really didn‘t know if he knew that I existed,” he said.

Kim, now 17, is the son of Kim Jong-il’s eldest son Kim Jong-nam, who fell out of favor with his father following a botched attempt in 2001 to secretly enter Japan using a fake passport and visit Disneyland.

The family has since lived in virtual exile, mainly in the Chinese territory of Macau.

“My dad was not really interested in politics,” Kim said, when asked why his father was passed over for the dynastic succession in North Korea in favour of his younger brother.

“I don‘t really know why he became a dictator,” Kim said of his uncle Kim Jung-un. “It was between him and my grandfather.”

The interview was conducted in English for a Finnish television channel by Elisabeth Rehn, a former UN under secretary general and special rapporteur for Human Rights in Bosnia-Hercegovina.

“When I was growing up in North Korea, I wasn’t really aware of what was going on there,” Kim said. “I‘ve always dreamed that one day I would go back and make things better and make it easier for the people there,” he added. (AFP)


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김정일 손자, "김정은은 독재자다!"

전 북한 지도자 김정일의 10대 손자의 흔치 않은 인터뷰 영상이 유투브에 게시돼 화제다.

보스니나에 위치한 자신의 학교에서 이뤄진 인터뷰에서 김한솔(17)은 자신의 삼촌이자 현 북한 지도자 김정은을 ‘독재자’로 지칭하며 한민족의 삶을 개선하고자 하는 자신의 바람에 대해 밝혔다.

검은 뿔테에 패셔너블한 헤어스타일을 한 김한솔은 학교에서 깊은 친분을 나누고 있는 한국인과 미국인 친구들에 대해 이야기하는 한편, 한반도의 통일에 대한 자신의 희망에 대해 털어놨다.

1995년 평양에서 출생한 그는 대부분 외가에서 지냈던 외로운 유년기에 대해 묘사하며 자신의 할아버지인 김정일을 실제로 만난 적은 한 번도 없다고 말했다.

김한솔은 “언제나 할아버지를 만나 어떤 분인지 알고 싶었다.”고 털어놨다.

김한솔의 가족은 아버지 김정남이 권력 승계구도에서 도태돼 북한 밖으로 망명한 이후 계속해서 외국에서 생활해왔다.

이 인터뷰는 핀란드TV YLE의 엘리자베스 렌에 의해 영어로 진행됐다.

김한솔은 또, “북한에서 자랄 때 나는 그곳의 현실에 대해 잘 알지 못했다.”며 “언젠가 북한으로 돌아가 북한 사람들의 삶을 더 나을 것으로 만들고 싶다”고 밝혔다. (코리아헤럴드)