Last night I had a rather odd dream. I seemed to be a reporter of some type, and I had the unique and highly enviable opportunity to interview Kim Jong-un, son of Kim Jong-il and heir-apparent of North Korea’s reclusive “dynasty.” It seemed that while in real life Kim Jong-un had only been “elevated” to heir-apparent status earlier this year, he had actually been in active control of the country since April of 2010, when his father had secretly stepped down.
As the interview continued, he seemed very reluctant to speak. I’d read (in real life) that Kim Jong-un liked basketball, so I figured that I’d toss him a “throw-away” question that I already knew the answer to, simply to get him talking. I asked him what his favorite sport was. He looked at me and said, “Cotton.” Then he said that he thought I’d wanted to ask him about the “Fischer Group” and counterrevolutionaries in North Korea.
I explained that I was just trying to get a rounded view of him as a person first. I then asked him about the dissidents in North Korea, and he called them “terrorists.” I asked him, given no outside influence and without the terrorists inside the country, where he saw North Korea in ten or even twenty years. I’m not sure that he ever answered the question. The dream then moved on to other subjects.
So, here’s a unique view into the secret world of one of the world’s most reclusive people, heir-apparent of the hands-down most reclusive country in the world. His favorite sport? Cotton. I think that explains exactly why people keep defecting to South Korea…
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